He said after being rescued from the river Mr Oldfield was detained by police who asked him why he had jumped in the water.

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In the Midlands, it rescued fish from the River Lathkill in Derbyshire after it dried up.

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Firefighters, in boats, rescued him from the fast-flowing beck - which flows into the River Swale - and he was transported by air ambulance to James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough.

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De Waal upped the ante in 1996 when he rescued Velsheda, originally built for the owner of the British Woolworths chain, from a river in England where she had been grounded and serving as a houseboat.

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