A WOMAN whose car plunged into a Hampshire river was saved from drowning by two men in a dramatic rescue.

Yacht owners watched in horror as the vehicle careered off a boat launch slipway into the fast-flowing River Hamble yesterday.

The Vauxhall Astra floated out under a jetty and then drifted towards open water before a boatswain from the Royal Southern Yacht Club and Hamble Parish Council chairman Ross Elliston plunged into the water to rescue her.

Mr Elliston told the Daily Echo: "The car went in and it floated upstream underneath the Royal Southern's gangway.

"One of the young boatswains jumped in the water off a launch. I had been in the Royal Southern.

"I came out, took my jacket off and waded into the water and secured the car to the launch because it was still floating."

Standing up to his chest in water, Mr Elliston then hung on to the back of the car while the boatswain worked his way around to the driver's door to rescue the driver.

"It started to sink a lot more, but he pulled her out and then I carried her ashore," said the parish council chairman who added: "If it hadn't been for the quick reactions of that young boatswain that young woman would have drowned."

But the hero of the hour said he would prefer to remain anonymous, pointing out that another boatswain had helped and it had been a team effort.

However a Royal Southern spokeswoman said: "As far as the club is concerned he did an excellent job - he is a hero in my eyes."

The distressed woman driver was taken into the boatswain's store before paramedics, an ambulance and the police arrived.

Witness Claire Shipman, 45, said she was shocked to see the car floating away from the riverside at Hamble village.

She said: "I turned around and saw this car just drifting slowly out into the middle of the river - and couldn't believe there was a woman inside."

Deputy harbour master Tony Clatworthy said it was fortunate that the driver had been spotted and rescued so quickly.

He said: "We received a call from the Royal Southern Yacht club in Hamble at 11am, telling us that this woman had driven into the water.

"Luckily she was rescued within 15 minutes - any later and the car would have fully submerged.

"After the woman was safe we attached a line to the car's tow-eye and used a crane to lift it out of the water."

The woman, believed to be in her 40s, had been speeding towards the river in a mauve-coloured Vauxhall Astra at 11am. She has been hospitalised.