A toddler paddling in floodwater was rescued by her father after being sucked down a drain and washed along an underground pipe before being thrown into a swollen river.

Leona Baxter, 3, was playing in a puddle near a children’s play area in Chester-le-Street, Co Durham, when she stepped into an uncovered storm drain. She disappeared down the drain and was swept 230ft (70m) along a water-filled pipe before being thrown out into the River Wear. Her 34-year-old father, Sergeant Mark Baxter, of the RAF, dived in to rescue her.

The drama happened on Sunday evening when Leona visited Riverside Park with her father, her mother Beverley, 32, and her sister Kiah, 6. The girls were paddling in 8in of water when Leona and the family dog, a boxer-mastiff cross called Brophy disappeared down the 6½ft-wide drain. Mr Baxter said: “I thought she had fallen over and expected her to get up all wet and spluttering. But there was nothing. I ran through the puddle to where she had been to lift her out of the water. That’s when I noticed there was a swirling whirlpool effect in the middle of the puddle.

“I heard Bev cry out and looked up to see the dog being sucked down the same hole. I couldn’t stop it.”

Realising that his daughter had fallen into a storm drain he assumed it must empty near by and ran towards the river. “Every time I thought a bad thought I forced myself to think of something else,” he said.

“As I got there I saw what appeared to be Leona’s coat, but then I realised that she was in it. She was floating face down in the river.”

When he pulled his daughter from the water she was not breathing so he patted her on the back.

“It was then that I heard Leona cough and cry and then she was sick,” he said. “A lot of water came out. It was terrifying but I felt better and more hopeful when I heard that.

“I gave her to Bev, who was in the river, but much nearer the bank than me. I couldn’t move because my wellies were full of water.”

Leona was treated for hypothermia at the scene and is being kept at University Hospital of North Durham for monitoring.

“She can remember exactly what happened,” Mr Baxter said. “She was trying to do a star float but she couldn’t because she was squashed. She said, ‘I couldn’t do them, Daddy, because I was stuck in a tunnel.’

“She banged her head on a rock in the tunnel. There was no space and the force of the water knocked any swimming out. [She is] demanding ice-cream and chocolate.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Oh no, Mr Darling: you have failed
• BBC survives dogfight over Kennel Club expose
• Where the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone