JUST INSTINCT

Modest hero saves mum and toddler from car. 94mph winds & torrential rain trigger turmoil

- ADAM ASPINALL and LUCY THORNTON

A HERO who saved a terrified mum and her three-year-old girl from their car as it was swept away in Storm Henk says he "acted on instinct".

Liam Stych, 28, leapt into a swollen river after he and his pregnant partner Tia Draper, 27, heard screams coming from a car that had been dragged under a footbridge by the rising waters.

He said: "She was shouting, 'Help me, please save my baby, she's in the back'.

"The front of her car was pointing down into the water so I dangled off the bridge and told the woman to remain calm and unwind her window. I said, 'Give me babbie's hand, I'll get her out'.

"The woman could only get her window half down so I took the babbie and literally hurled her behind me and into the lap of Tia, who was on the bridge." After freeing the youngster, he sprinted back to his work van and grabbed a set of 3.5 tonne ratchet straps to secure the car to the bridge so it would not drift under.

Video of the rescue shows him shimmying along the bridge as the car is almost submerged. He then clambers onto the Fiat Punto's roof and smashes the back window to free the mum inside.