Woman and baby rescued from River Thames (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Woman and baby rescued from River Thames

12:13pm Tuesday 1st December 2009

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A woman and her six-month-old baby have been rescued from a stranded boat.

A 30ft wooden cruiser boat lost power while travelling down the River Thames and became stuck in Teddington Weir, in the early hours of Monday morning.

A crew from Teddington Lifeboat Station were called and two lifeboats, four fire engines, an ambulance and police went to the incident.

The lifeboat crew rescued the woman and the baby, who were taken to Teddington Lockhouse, but a man stayed on the stranded boat with his dog and refused to be evacuated, against advice.

The crews were on the water for four hours and at 11.15am the boat was towed to safety by an Environment Agency tugboat.

Malcolm Miatt, Teddington Lifeboat operations manager, warned of the dangers of the river at this time of year. It is currently listed as unsafe for navigation.

He said: “The river is at high water levels and travelling very fast making it extremely strong at the moment.

"The woman and her baby were very lucky.”

Do you know the couple? Call our newsroom on 020 8744 4271.

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