Drowning man saved by wooden leg

A holidaymaker was pulled from water he had fallen in to by alerting rescuers to his presence by waving his wooden leg.

The man took a tumble from his small inflatable dinghy, at Restronguet, Cornwall, and was helped out of the water by two yacht workers who were passing on another boat, after waving the wooden limb.

Dave Thomas and Royston Dower, who work at Falmouth Yacht Brokers, were on a rigid inflatable when they spotted the stricken man.

Jerry Hobkirk, from Falmouth Yacht Brokers, said: "Dave Thomas and Royston Dower were delivering a boat when they saw a woman screaming on the shoreline. They went back and saw a man clinging to a buoy waving to get their attention."

He said that it was only when they got closer that they could see he was waving his wooden leg to get their attention.

Mr Hobkirk said that the two men managed to drag the man into their boat before taking him back to his concerned wife on the shoreline and heading on their way.