An unemployed, homeless teenager saved an 80-year-old man from drowning in Colchester.

Aaron Hayden, 17, was near Middlemill, walking to a building site to ask for a job, when he saw a walking stick and pair of glasses on the bank of the River Colne.

He looked down and saw an elderly man in the water. He said: "He was lying there with his head underwater. I thought he had fallen in and jumped to try to pull him out.

"It was just before the sluice gate, which was open, and the water was about a foot over his head as he lay flat.

"I got his head out of the water but the bank was muddy and slippery. I took my coat off and wrapped it round him. Two businessmen passing by then helped and called the emergency services.

"The man was freezing cold and kept saying he wanted to die. I told him he was not dying in that water because it was too cold," said Aaron.

The man was taken by ambulance to Colchester General Hospital where he was "stable" on Friday.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.