Man stranded by lock

A MAN who jumped into the Grand Union Canal by a lock gate to rescue a dog discovered that he could not then get out, and was stranded in the water until help arrived.

Kevin Coe saw the dog in the water at the top gates of St Mary's Mill Lock at Aylestone in Leicester, and as he could not reach it, jumped in to rescue the dog, but though he managed to hand the animal up to the owner, he was unable to get out himself, Alan Tilbury tells us.

Struggling

The dog had jumped into the canal after a ball, and Kevin saw it was struggling, having been there for some time, so he jumped in, grazing himself on the coping stones as he did.

He was prompted as the woman was obviously distressed and her little girl was crying.  It was only when two lads on bikes came past, helping him, that he was able to struggle out of the water.

He complained that there was no ladder, which he expected 'for people on boats to climb up' but of course boaters simply step on and off boats outside the lock, the ladders are obviously inside the lock, not on the outside as he expected.
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