Firefighters were called to a lake in Essex after an attempt to rescue a dog in freezing weather left two men stranded in icy water.
The incident took place at Connaught Water in Epping Forest over the weekend, ahead of the coldest night of the year on Monday and warnings of Storm Goretti – the first named storm of the year.
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Video from Sunday shows the men in the water, before emergency services arrived to help the men from the lake.
Temperatures in Epping Forest District dropped as low as -6C in the early hours of Sunday morning, according to timeanddate.com.
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Ozgur Ontas, an eyewitness who filmed the incident, told Sky News: “My family and I were walking around the lake, we live nearby, when suddenly we saw a man fall into the water and someone else helping him.
“There was a crowd behind them. They immediately called for first aid, and they managed to get the dog out of the lake within ten or fifteen minutes.”
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Mr Ontas added that “first aid arrived and took him away” and that the dog was “wet but fine”.
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Essex Fire and Rescue Service said in a statement that a “member of the public fell through ice” in the attempt to save the dog.
It added that “the dog was safely reunited with its owners,” and that both men were able to get out of the water and were left in the care of the ambulance service.
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Gary Dyer, the fire brigade’s watch manager, added that while the force “completely understand why people want to help in situations like this”, he also warned that “cold water can overwhelm the body very quickly”.
“The safest thing to do is stay out of the water and call us – we have the training and equipment to respond safely,” he added.
