A DRUNKEN student is “very lucky” to be alive after he was rescued from the freezing cold River Wear in Durham in the early hours of this morning (Friday, January 30).

The 20-year-old Durham University student, who has not been named, was spotted in the water near Durham Amateur Rowing Club, off Green Lane, at about 1.45am by a passer-by, who called 999.

The police rushed to the scene and, with the student unable to pull himself to safety, formed a human chain to drag him to the refuge of the riverbanks.

Suffering from hypothermia and “extremely intoxicated”, he was taken by ambulance to the University Hospital of North Durham, but he was released later in the morning and is now helping police with their enquiries.

The dramatic rescue came just a week after the body of missing student Euan Coulthard was discovered in the Wear – the third student death in the river in 15 months.

Assistant Chief Constable Dave Orford, of Durham Police, said the student, originally from Northern Ireland, had been “exceedingly close” to meeting his end and his officers had “without doubt” saved his life.

PC Simon Cutter, 23, was one of the officers involved in the rescue.

The area was very cold and dark when he arrived, he said, and although he and his colleagues could hear someone shouting for help, they could not see him.

The officers followed the voice and finally spotted the student near a steep bank. 

They threw a flotation ring into the water but the student was so cold he struggled to grasp it.

Although the whole incident lasted only a few minutes, police were growing increasingly concerned for his welfare, as he was moving more and more slowly and becoming less and less responsive.

So, having tied one end of the ring’s rope to a tree, six officers including PC Cutter formed a human chain into the rushing water and managed to hold the student securely until the fire brigade arrived and helped complete the rescue.

PC Cutter then helped the student to a waiting ambulance, where he was stripped, wrapped in thermal blankets and taken to hospital.

“It’s not worth thinking about what might have happened,” the officer said.

“I was relieved for him and for the safety of my colleagues. You never think: ‘What if I go in here?’

“You just think, as anyone would: ‘How are we going to get them out?’

“I thought: ‘He’s been in there for ages, the fire brigade will be here soon, I’ll be alright’.

“It all happened so quickly, you just do what you do.

“He’s very, very lucky that at quarter to two in the morning there was somebody walking along the riverbanks.”

Police are now trying to piece together what the student had been doing and where he had been earlier in the evening.

Mr Orford said he lived out of college accommodation and “in the area” but declined to speculate on why he had walked along the river.

“He is working with us to give a full account,” he said.

PC Cutter said at the time the student had no idea how he had come to be in the river.

Mr Orford said the police were treating the incident extremely seriously, would investigate the full circumstances and bring charges if any criminal offences had been committed.