A PARAMEDIC from Bolton saved the life of a driver whose car careered off a road and landed upside down in a river.

Phil Howcroft used a craft knife to cut the seat belt of the driver and free him as his car was sinking in the murky waters of the River Medlock in Salford.

A woman passenger in the Honda Civic had managed to scramble out of the car after it plunged off the Mancunian Way in a freak accident and crashed into the river.

But the driver was trapped and was in danger of drowning as Mr Howcroft, who is operations manager at Bolton's Highfield ambulance station, and three other motorists scrambled to the rescue.

Today, as he was hailed a hero, Mr Howcroft played down his role the rescue of the couple, who were Chinese and in their 40s.

"There's no way I could have got the driver out the car without the other three people at the scene," he said.

Motorists and pedestrians watched in horror as the car careered off the Mancunian Way after the accident with a lorry, near the junction with Dawson Street, at 2pm on Monday.

The car had landed upside down in the river and was rapidly filling with water when Mr Howcroft, passer-by Mark Spencer and plumbers Anthony Worrall, from Blackley, and Michael Moran, aged 21, from Boothstown, stopped to help.

Mr Howcroft, who lives in Swinton, and logistics manager Mr Spencer, aged 39, from Wythenshawe, used ladders which had been on the plumbers' van to scramble down the embankment.

The woman had managed to free herself from the overturned car but the driver was trapped inside and the pair had to use one of the plumbers' knives to cut his seatbelt

Mr Howcroft, aged 39, climbed down the embankment and waded through the freezing water to help cut free the man, who was trapped in the car by his seatbelt. He then helped to drag the man and the woman passenger to safety.

Mr Howcroft said: "I was just driving to a meeting in Manchester and saw a few people on top of the bridge. I stopped and saw a car in the river and could see two people's heads under the surface.

"The embankment down the river was really steep, but two plumbers had stopped in their van and had a pair of ladders. We couldn't have attempted a rescue without those ladders.

"We put them down and from doing that could test how deep the water was.

"I climbed down the ladders and waded towards the car. The woman was coughing and spluttering and we had to cut the man out of his seatbelt.

"They were absolutely devastated about what had happened and had cut themselves in their panic to try and get out."

By the time he dragged the couple out of the water, an ambulance and a fire crew were at the scene.

Mr Howcroft, who has been a paramedic for 20 years, said: "Even though I'm a paramedic, I was just one of a team in this incident and we all used common sense.

"The other people were excellent. I have no doubt that if this had happened in the early hours of the morning, the couple would be dead now."

The couple, in their 40s and of Chinese descent, were taken to hospital with minor injuries and released after treatment.

Mr Worrall, aged 28, said it was a miracle the couple in the car were not killed.

"I can't believe they are not dead. How the heck anyone survived that I do not know," he said.