Cop saves woman after icy water bridge plunge
A police officer who jumped into ice cold waters in eastern Sweden is being hailed as a hero for saving a woman who had jumped off a bridge just moments before.
Witnesses alerted police on Monday night that a woman was standing on Mälarbron bridge in Södertälje and looked set to jump. Officers arrived just moments after the woman took the plunge into the icy waters below.
One of the policemen didn’t hesitate to jump in to try to save the woman, reported the local Länstidningen newspaper.
He then swam to the other side of the canal until he reached the woman, and brought her to the shoreline where his colleagues helped pull her to safety.
She was taken to hospital and is now in a stable condition.
Kjell Karlsson, commanding officer at the Södertälje police, said that the heroic officer had acted above and beyond the call of duty.
“It’s not just anyone who can manage to swim in cold water,” he told the paper.
“It’s really risky. This was truly a job well done .”
…Also question of the day is: what was your heroic moment? – Admin DB
Well done, we were actually talking about swimming this morning and how officers no longer do life saving like I did when I joined.
A few years ago there was a house fire about four doors down from me and my neighbour (who lived next door to his elderly parents) couldn’t get his mum and dad out of their house that was joined onto the one on fire.
My wife (before we divorced) rang 999, I found the elderly couple trying to get down the stairs. I helped them out of the house just as the fire service turned up only for the fire officer to call me a “stupid bastard” for going in and my wife to play merry hell with me for the same reason.
Like to think I’d do it again if I had to, despite the abuse.