A GRANDMOTHER has heroically rescued her granddaughter from York's River Ouse after the baby's pram rolled into the water.

Witness Stuart Yates, manager of cruise vessel YorkBoat, said the woman had been feeding the ducks with the 14-month-old baby on Friday afternoon when the brakes on her pram failed and it went down a steep slope into the river.

He said the woman went in the water to save the baby and was assisted by someone on a private boat in getting the girl and pram out of the water.

He said the incident happened just upstream of Lendal Bridge near the Westgate Apartments, across the river from the Museum Gardens.

He said he was called to the scene from his firm's boatyard near Lendal Bridge by a crew on a YorkBoat which had happened to be passing at the time, and the grandmother and baby were on the river bank by the time he got there, apparently unharmed.

Crew members brought a blanket and towel for the pair until paramedics arrived. An ambulance arrived at the scene at 3.09pm on Friday, but the woman and baby did not require hospital treatment.