A DOG WALKER was saved from almost certain death after toppling into a brook, being swept through a mill race and finally clinging to the branch of a tree, yards from the full force of a flood swollen River Severn.

The local woman, in her fifties, is believed to have slipped into the brook which runs through Westbury-on-Severn after her Staffordshire bull terrier startled a duck.

She was swept downstream, through the mill races at Severn Mill where it is thought she struck her head on the metal sluice gates before going under a steel girder and grabbing a branch in icy sub-zero temperatures.

The owners of Severn Mill, Tony and Elaine Lanciano, first heard what they thought were "animal or bird of prey cries" coming from under their house.

"We'd just got home, it was so lucky we were there. We could hear a noise, thought it was children playing but you couldn't hear very well because there was so much water coming down the brook. The noise was a bit like an animal or bird of prey crying.

"We went out and saw a lady covered in blood and hanging on for dear life to the branch of a tree which was lodged under the RSJ.

"The water was rushing through like a lion," said Tony. "It's like a pussy cat today. What's amazing is that she was still conscious. If she hadn't been, she'd have gone straight out into the Severn and that would have been that."

Using a life buoy and ropes, the Luciano's managed to drag the woman ashore.

"We had to make her put both arms through, at first she just wouldn't let go of the dog lead. She was really heavy when we dragged her out of the water, because her clothes were so full of water. She was covered in blood and mud and there was a crescent-shaped cut on her head, where you could see the bone. How she survived going through there I don't know. When we got her out she was hypothermic, she'd been in the water for at least 10 minutes, but she was conscious and kept saying 'sorry'."

Paramedics, police and the ambulance service turned up minutes later and the woman was rushed to the Royal Gloucestershire Hospital for treatment.

Great Western Ambulance Service paramedic, Shane Daley, who was first on the scene said: "By the time I got there the people who live in the house by the river had managed to get her out of the water. She was really lucky as she was in the water for about 15 minutes which is always very dangerous, especially at this time of the year given the current temperatures. The couple who rescued her were really brave and certainly helped save this woman's life as she was already suffering from hypothermia.

"This woman might not have survived much longer, so I would urge the public to be extremely careful whan around any body of water, especially when the temperatures are low and the river levels are high."