Woman and dog pulled from River Cherwell

A woman and her dog have been rescued after falling through ice on a river in Oxfordshire.

Fire and rescue crews were called to the River Cherwell on Tuesday after a passer-by spotted the 39-year-old woman in the water.

She had gone out onto the ice to try to retrieve her dog after it had fallen in and then fell through the ice near University Parks.

Firefighters pulled both of them to safety.

Paul Molloy, station manager from Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: "Dog owners should think very carefully about where they exercise their animals and preferably keep dogs on leads near water.

"This woman was lucky the passer-by spotted her in the water, if she hadn't been there at that moment this could have been a very different story.

"Please remember that ice can appear to be thicker than it is, if a dog falls through the ice then a human almost certainly will."