An Australian TV reporter and a nearby bystander heroically swam through rising floodwaters to rescue a man trapped in his sinkingcar — and the remarkable feat was caught on camera.
Will Murray was reporting on heavy rainfall that blanked much of the Brisbane region on Thursday when a man plowed his four-wheel-drive truck through floodwaters in Morayfield, Queensland, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported.
Murray, who works for the ABC, said the man’s truck stalled and started to sink in the surge of water that rose after over six inches of rain fell that morning.
“I saw him drive in and immediately his car started floating downstream,” Murray recounted to the ABC, noting he quickly dialed emergency services.
WATCH: A TV reporter dives into raging floodwaters to save a driver trapped inside a sinking SUV, pulling the person to safety just moments before the vehicle disappears underwater. ABC journalist Will Murray and another bystander swim toward the vehicle in Morayfield,… pic.twitter.com/dRrU7N3arB
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“Initially I could see him, but he disappeared from my sight within seconds, so I made the call to jump in,” he said.
Bystander Daniel Hainey had a similar thought process when he noticed the dangerous situation unfolding.
“The car began to slowly sink deeper and deeper, and that’s when I thought, ‘Oh no, this is not looking good’, so I started swimming in there,” Hainey told the news station.
Murray said he quickly handed his phone to his camera operator, Liz Pickering, and immediately started to swim through the “deep” waters alongside Hainey.
“When we got to the car we tried to open the closest door, no luck, then got on the back of the car with the thought to break the back window,” Murray said.
“I thought to try the passenger side rear door first and put my feet against the car and pulled as hard as I could and with some luck the door swung open.”
The reporter speculated that water flooding in “helped create some pressure to force the door open,” allowing the driver to be pulled from the truck moments before it disappeared beneath the surface.
“All three of us gave each other a big hug and were just so relieved,” Murray recalled. “It was very scary, but happy everyone is safe and relieved it is OK.”
Murray’s camera operator, who captured the heroic rescue effort on video, noted that “the pair of them definitely saved that man’s life.”
The journalist said after returning to safety, the rescued man explained he “didn’t see the signage and didn’t realize how deep it was” when he drove his truck through at speed.
“I had no idea how deep it was and that’s the lesson we keep hearing, isn’t it, that you can’t tell and you really couldn’t,” Murray recalled to the Australian outlet, calling the ordeal “terrifying.”
“It didn’t look particularly severe,” the reporter observed. “But as you can see in the vision, the car completely disappears. It’s clearly very deep in the middle there.”
Having “just witnessed how quickly it can go south,” Murray made a public service announcement on national television.
“Please don’t drive into floodwaters,” he pleaded.
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