A 72-YEAR-old man feared to have drowned in a Suffolk swimming pool was revived by lifeguards.

James Mortlock

A 72-YEAR-old man feared to have drowned in a Suffolk swimming pool was revived by lifeguards.

The elderly man was swimming at Newmarket pool this afternoon when quick-thinking lifeguards spotted he had got into difficulties and dived in to save him.

They managed to get him out of the water but the pensioner was not breathing and they began desperate attempts to revive him and the ambulance service was called.

A spokesman for Forest Heath District Council, which operates the leisure centre, said that by the time first responders were on the scene the man was breathing again: “The man collapsed in the water at Newmarket pool at just after 1.30pm.

“He was brought out of the water and was found to be not breathing. But by the time the first responders were there he was breathing.”

She praised the staff for their presence of mind: “They are understandably a little upset and don't want to talk about what happened at the moment. But the man was got out of the pool very quickly and resuscitated. When the ambulance left for hospital he was conscious.

“The pool was closed for a little while but reopened at 4pm. There will be some sort of look at what happened.”

A spokesman for the East Anglian Ambulance Service said the man was conscious and breathing when he arrived at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, in a land ambulance.

His condition was believed to be stable.