Watch: U.K. Diplomat Saves Drowning Woman In China

5 Minute Read

• British diplomat Stephen Ellison hailed as hero in China after rescuing woman from river. 

• Video of the consul general, 61, leaping into water to save student racks up tens of millions of views on social media.

• Footage shows Ellison dragging woman to a lifebuoy thrown from the riverbank before dragging the two of them to shore.

• Critics on social media asked why so many Chinese people didn't intervening to save her life.

 Watch the Video/ Interview 

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Source: BBC News

Stephen Ellison, 61, consul-general in Chongqing, was walking by a river in a nearby village when the woman, 24, slipped on rocks into the deep water.

Footage filmed by onlookers showed her struggle in the current, disappear under a footbridge and emerge face down, apparently unconscious.

Mr Ellison took off his shoes and dived in to save her. She has not been named, but was a student.

The consul general, who takes part in triathlons, turned the student over, lifted her face clear of the water and swam backwards to the steep sided riverbank.

"She was unconscious, she was not breathing and for a short time we feared the worst. But as we got back to the side, she started breathing again," he told the BBC of the rescue, which took place on Saturday morning.

The diplomat held onto a lifebuoy attached to a rope that had been thrown towards him by passers-by, who then pulled the woman to safety. Mr Ellison swam round to shallower rocks and climbed out. He was given dry clothes and warm drinks by grateful villagers.

Image of the rescue.

 "Immensely proud" 

“We are all immensely proud”, the UK diplomatic mission in China tweeted Monday. The diplomat himself said the female student, who is from Wuhan and attends Chongqing University, was shaken by the experience and recovered slowly.

The Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, praised the British diplomat, saying” “Salute to Stephen Ellison, British new Consul General in Chongqing. His name will be remembered not only in Chongqing area but around China. His act of heroism and kindness will be a much-told & far-spread story of China-UK friendship.”

Image: Tweet by United Kingdom government account.

 Why didn't others react? 

Critics on social media asked why so many Chinese people seemed to be watching her drowning from the side of the river instead of intervening to save her life, but some said very few Chinese people know how to swim and others that there is a fear of becoming involved in a public incident.

Sources: BBC, The Guardian.

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