The Brussels Fire Service has recued a woman that had fallen into the Brussels Canal. Fire Service spokesman Walter Derieuw told the Brussels local news platform Bruzz that before firefighters arrived at the scene a member of the public had gone to the woman’s assistance to prevent her from drowning or being carried away by the current.
Mr Derieuw told journalists that “At around 1pm the emergency services and the Brussels Capital/Elsene Local Police Service were called out to assist a person that was in the canal near to the Van Praet Bridge”.
"When we arrived a passer-by was holding on to the arm of the person that was in the water, while he himself was on top of a construction that was sticking out over the canal. Our divers went into the water to get the person out”.
The woman was taken to hospital but was not in a life-threatening condition. It is still unclear as to how she came to be in the water.
Mr Derieuw concluded by thanking the person that had gone to the woman’s assistance for his actions. “Without his intervention, the incident might have ended very differently.”