'Drowned' toddler returns from the dead

A toddler whom police had pronounced dead after she fell into the river Thames when her mother fainted while feeding ducks was resuscitated after doctors discovered a very faint heartbeat two hours later, and was last night in a critical condition at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford.

The 18-month-old girl, who has not been named, had been airlifted to the hospital and had been thought to be dead when she arrived. A police statement announced her death shortly before midday, but two hours later, a spokesman said that she had come back to life.

The incident happened at around 9.45am at Ferry Lane, Goring, South Oxfordshire, after the child fell from a towpath into the water with her mother and six-year-old sister. A passing boatman jumped into the water and dialled emergency services from a mobile phone.