River rescuer sang Adele song to keep man calm

Will Tretheway, 19, clung onto the man in the water from a boat

A university student sang an Adele song and Leeds United chants to help keep a man calm after he was found in the River Ouse in York.

Will Tretheway, 19, said he was on a night out when he heard "weird noises" coming from the water and went to investigate.

After calling the emergency services he said he clambered onto a boat to locate the man and grab hold of him before rescuers arrived.

Speaking to BBC Radio York, he said in a bid to reassure the man he started singing Someone Like You as "it was the only song that I knew word for word" before moving on to football songs.

Mr Tretheway said: "I think by the time the rescue boat got there, I think maybe 40 minutes had passed.

"I don't know how long he was actually in there for but I was holding on to him for a while."

He said he began chatting with the man in the water and realised they had the same name and were doing the same university degree.

"I was obviously trying to keep his mind off stuff while he was there," he said.

"So I started playing Adele, it was the only song that I knew word for word, Someone Like You.

"I started singing that and at this point I was shouting at him, 'don't you stop moving your legs', I didn't want him to get colder.

"After that, he said he was a Leeds fan, so we started singing Leeds chants."

Mr Tretheway said he had climbed over a brick wall on to the front of a small white boat

Mr Tretheway said when crew from rescue charity York Rescue Boat (YRB) arrived the man in the water was "freezing" and was whisked away to a waiting ambulance.

Mark Mullen, from YRB, said the person they rescued had been "very keen to be out of the water".

"The water temperature at the moment is very very cold, 12C, so we're in the realms of cold water shock," he said.

Mr Mullen likened the symptoms to getting in a shower and gasping when it suddenly runs cold and the water hits you.

"If you're gasping when you're underwater then you're starting to drown, so if you do find yourself in there, the key is to relax," he added.

Mr Mullen said YRB had experienced a record year for incidents with "69 call outs since 1 January."

He also warned people against going into the water to try and save someone.

"It's very rare that going in ever helps, you generally end up with two casualties in the water," he said.

"So if you're in York and inland, ring 999, ask for fire and they'll get the ball rolling. We'll often get called out.

"If you're at the coast, it's 999, ask for the Coastguard."

Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.