Winnipeg police chief recounts late-night water rescue that unfolded in his backyard

When Winnipeg's police chief awoke to the sound of banging on his door in the early hours of Thursday morning, he had no idea the kind ofsaga he was about to watch unfold.

Danny Smyth said he got up around 1:30 a.m. to find his neighbour telling him there was a woman in the river behind their homes who was screaming for help.

Emergency services were called and within minutes crews from the Winnipeg Police Service and the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Servicewere there, Smyth said at a news conference on Thursday.

"My backyard looked like a scene out of a movie," he said, as he described officers frantically pacing the banks of the Red River with flashlights, trying to spot the woman in the darkness.

Finally, the sounds of splashing water and cries for help led crews to the woman, who Smyth said is 37.

She was stuck in the current about 40 feet from shorealong Scotia Street near Kildonan Park, police said in a news release.

'A helpless feeling'

Once they found her, responders realized the woman was drifting further north and tried to devise a plan to get a watercraft out to her, Smyth said. But by that point, the woman's cries for help fell silent.

"That certainly heightened the situation," Smyth said, adding he was worried the amount of time the woman was in the extremely cold water was sapping her strength.

"It was really a helpless feeling as I wondered if I was going to witness a drowning."

Then, with the help of a long rope Smyth's neighbour gave to police, four officers "stripped to their skivvies" and swam out into the darkness to form a human chain while a handful of other officers tethered them to shore, he said.

"As a concerned citizen and as the chief of police, I've got to tell you I held my breath worried about the woman in the water and now worried about our members who swam out to save her," Smyth said.

"I can't tell you how relieved I was when I saw them successfully take hold of the woman and make it back to shore safely."

The woman was taken to hospital in stable condition as aprecautionary measure, police said.