A father-of-two told how he dragged a drunken man to safety out of a canal.
The mystery victim, in his mid-20s, was apparently pushed into the water and “left to drown.”
Dad-of-two Patrick Hargreaves, 32, was at a playground with six-year-old daughter Molly and son Mason, four, when a teenager ran up and said there was a man in the canal.
Patrick sprinted to the canalside and grabbed the man, eventually hauling him out of the water.
The man was barely conscious and not breathing properly. Patrick slapped him on the back and the man spluttered some water out and started breathing.
The drama happened just before 7.30pm on Saturday near a bridge over the Calder & Hebble Canal in Lowlands Road, Mirfield.
Police, firefighters and paramedics attended the scene. The Yorkshire Air Ambulance also landed nearby but was not needed.
Here's a video of the scene and the departing Air Ambulance by Ben Merrit
Patrick told how he started emptying his pockets and was ready to jump into the canal.
His son became upset and instead he was able to reach out to the man who grabbed his hand.
“I just did what anybody else would have done,” said Patrick. “This young teenager came up and was a bit panicky.
“The lad in the water was still conscious and I was able to get hold of him by the belt but couldn’t pull him out. Another lad helped me drag him onto the banking.
“There was someone of the phone to the ambulance and they were asking if he was breathing. He didn’t seem to be so I slapped him on the back and water came out of his mouth and he started breathing.
“The lad had been drinking – I could smell the alcohol on him – and he started swearing at me, asked for a cig and was then laughing because I’d put him face down in some nettles.
“I could see his coat floating in the water but because of the state he was in I didn’t say anything.
“I spoke to the ambulance people and told them what had happened and left them to it.”
Patrick said he had been told by some youths at the scene that the man had been deliberately pushed into the water.
When the attacker was told to help get him out, he said: “Let him drown” and disappeared.
The man’s jacket was later fished out of the water by someone on a canal boat.
It is thought the man was taken to hospital but Patrick believes he was okay.
He added: “The lad’s head was bobbing up and down in the water and the ambulance didn’t arrive until another three or four minutes after me so it could easily have gone the other way.”
