Pupils save woman’s life in Northamptonshire flood

Max Fleming-Belt, 17, waded into chest-deep water near the village of Bradden after he, his brother and a fellow pupil saw a Volkswagen Golf pushed onto its side by the current.

While the others, brother Harry and Natasha Ainsley-Smith, both 14, directed traffic and phoned 999, Max quickly pushed down an electric window as the car, which was being held from being pushed away by a shrub, began to fill up with water.

He lifted the woman clear and waded back to safety minutes before the car drifted away on the current towards the river.

Max, a Sponne School pupil, said: “The car was filling up quite quickly. Judging by where the water was on me, it would have been over her head if she had got out. I probably saved her life.”

The trio had just helped Harry and Max’s next door neighbour Carol Austin out of the flood waters after her and her husband got stuck.

Mrs Austin said: “I later found out what they did with the other woman and they deserve some recognition, they were heroes.”