EMERGENCY SERVICES brought drama to Saddleworth’s Whit Friday Brass Band Contests as a 70-year-old woman was rescued from the River Tame at Delph.
The lady and a female companion were walking next to the river, which runs behind the Old Bell Inn, at about 11.45pm.
They were around 500 metres away from the pub when the woman slipped and fell down a four-foot banking into a shallow part of the river.
The shaken pensioner was stuck in the water until the fire brigade arrived and lowered a spine board into the water to rescue her.
Paramedics, who struggled to get their ambulance through the band contest crowds, took the injured woman to the Royal Oldham Hospital where she was treated for suspected neck and back injuries.
The Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service’s water incident unit, based at Heywood, also arrived but returned to base when crews from Oldham Fire Station turned up.
One Delpher quipped: “All we needed was an air ambulance and a lifeboat and we would have had a full set!”
Locals added that Friday 13th certainly lived up to its name in Delph with five ambulances called for non-contest related medical emergencies.
They said one visit caused a thirty-five minute hiatus close to the end of the contest, which meant the final few bands had to curtailed their street march to comply with the authorities’ regulations.
And near the village centre, vandals went on the rampage smashing windows and walls at allotments and destroying coping stones at a car park which is being refurbished.
