Chiswick RNLI Say Today's Thames Rescue Has Had "Good Outcome"
Man was uninjured after being pulled from water in early morning
Chiswick RNLI has rescued a man who had fallen into the Thames close to Putney Bridge in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
A press officer for the service says: " We got a call at 1.48 this morning to say there was a man in the water about 100 metres upstream of Putney Bridge on the Fulham side.
"When the lifeboat arrived the onshore police had thrown the man a life ring and he was clinging to that."
The man, who had been with his girlfriend, was pulled from the water and taken to Putney Pier. "He was uninjured and didn't need any treatment from us, but was taken to hospital by ambulance as a precaution, which is standard procedure in these cases," says the press officer.
" When he was picked up he said to the crew: 'This is not what it appears to be' and it seems to have been simply a case of hijinks that went wrong.
" This man could have got into serious difficulties, so we are very pleased that there has been a good outcome."
As well as Chiswick RNLI, the rescue also involved Hammersmith and Fulham Police, the Metropolitan Police helicopter and London Ambulance Service.
The Metropolitan Police Helicopters reported on their twitter account @MPSinthesky: " 1.50hours - on way to Fulham to search for male fallen from a bridge into the Thames."
Then shortly after came a follow-up tweet: " Male located and rescued from the water by the lifeboats!"
At 8am, Hammersmith and Fulham Police said on their twitter account @MPSHammFul: " Man pulled out of Thames this morning following joint work near Putney Bridge and taken to hospital."
The rescue has also had its lighter side. Seeing that the first reports wrongly said that the rescue was carried out by Tower RNLI, Andy Mayo, full time helmsman at Chiswick, tweeted at his account, @andy_mayo69: "Have to say the casualty was picked up by Chiswick Lifeboat not Tower, a far better crew and much more good looking!"
The RNLI has 233 lifeboat stations including four on the Thames. Chiswick RNLI lifeboat became operational on the January 2, 2002 and since then it has responded to over 2,100 emergency calls. The four Thames lifeboats together have responded to over 5,000 calls.
To learn more about the lifeboat station go to Chiswick Lifeboat or Chiswick Lifeboat on Facebook
November 14, 2012
