A woman has described the moment she was involved in rescuing an elderly man who plunged into a river after having a suspected stroke.
The man, believed to be in his 70s, was along the Barrow Track in Carlow Town on Friday afternoon when the incident happened.
It's then understood he fell ill which caused him to fall into the River Barrow.
Sharon Buggy was jogging with Gillian Heraghty when they heard cries for help from local man Cillian Coakley, who had just passed the man while walking his dogs.
Sharon said: "When we came down, we jumped in as well. I pulled him up from the shoulders, and Gillian and Cillian pushed him up because it was kind of up a bank.
"At that time, we were on to 999 – they were on speaker. We weren’t sure whether we could move him or not really, and they just said take him out of the water and just put him on his side.
“He was unresponsive for a while… We were waiting for about 15 minutes or more for the ambulance because they couldn’t really get out to us or find us, even though we could hear the sirens. Eventually he did come right.”
The three people have been praised for rescuing the man as well as one of Cillian's dogs, who Sharon says played a role in the rescue.
She told KCLR News: "He was just walking the dog and he literally had just passed [the man] and said hello, and his dog stopped – just suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked behind because he probably sensed something.
"Cillian said he didn’t even hear him falling into the water, he didn’t hear a splash or anything.
"It was the dog that noticed, which is amazing really!”
KCLR News reported that it's understood the man is recovering in hospital.
