Father rescues daughter, three, sucked down storm drain during flood

A three-year-old girl had an extraordinary escape from the weekend's floods when she survived being sucked down a storm drain and carried 50 metres into the swollen river Wear in County Durham.

Leona Baxter was playing in puddles with her older sister and the family dog last night when she and the animal disappeared down an uncovered drain in Chester-le-Street. "She vanished in front of us," her mother, Beverley, from Leeming, North Yorkshire, told a press conference.



The girl's father, Mark, said he tried to pull her out of the "whirlpool" drain but could find no trace of her. He ran 50m to the swollen river and jumped in. "I broke the land speed record for wet welly running" , he said.

He found what at first he thought was the girl's coat, but turned out to be his unconscious daughter. She came round and vomited out the floodwater when he started patting her on the back.



"As soon as I saw her coughing and splattering I was a lot happier," Baxter said. "From us recognising the fact she wasn't there to me pulling her out the river was less than two minutes."

Leona, who suffered grazing to her forehead, is recovering after being treated for hypothermia.



Leona told her parents afterwards that she had tried techniques learned in her swimming lessons. "I tried to do a star float but I couldn't because I was stuck in a drain," she told them.

The dog is still missing.

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