Dad Saves Toddler Sucked Into Storm Drain

Girl was carried 230 feet through pipe into river swollen with floodwater

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 9, 2008 3:38 AM CDT

(Newser) – Emergency workers are praising the "incredibly quick thinking" of a British man who saved his 3-year-old daughter from drowning yesterday after she was sucked into a storm drain with her dog, the Guardian reports. Royal Air Force sergeant Mark Baxter raced to a river just in time to save his daughter Leona as she shot from the pipe into a flood-swollen river 230 feet away.

"She was floating face down in the river," he said. "I leapt over the side and grabbed her." Leona, badly scraped by the journey through the pipe, is expected to make a full recovery. Her dog didn't survive. Flooding killed 8 people in the UK over the weekend and forecasters warn that more heavy rains are on the way.

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Members of a rescue team check on houses surrounded by flood waters in Upton-upon-Severn, England. Heavy rain has caused flooding in many parts of the UK. (Getty Images)

The clean-up operation begins after flash floods flowed through Morpeth, England, last weekend. (Getty Images)

Flood barriers protect the Plough Inn in Upton-upon-Severn, England. (Getty Images)

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If there'd been a grate on the other end of the pipe or the girl had been a bit bigger she would have been stuck underground. Both she and her dad are lucky to be alive. - Firefighter Steve Hagar

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Dad Saves Toddler Sucked Into Storm Drain