An 89-year-old man has rescued a 83-year-old woman, who fell into a river, the Nanjing-based Modern Express reported.

Xu Liangda lives in a residential quarter in Huangtu town, Jiangyin city, Jiangsu province. Early in the morning, he was walking along the river in the residential quarter to the public toilet. He noticed a woman washing her sleeping mat by the riverside.

But on his way back, he could only see a plastic bucket by the riverside. There was no sign of the woman. He quickly searched the area for her.

He then spotted the woman in the river.

"After a struggle, she got her face out of the water and was gasping for breath and shouting 'help'," Xu recalled.

"I couldn't reach her, I told her not to panic and try to get close to the river bank."

Xu was eventually able to grab her foot and pull her slowly back to the bank.

Xu Jun, 47, witnessed the last moments of the rescue.

"I was walking the dog around the neighborhood and saw an old man pulling an old lady in the river."

He quickly ran over to the bank and helped carry her out of the water, before contacting the woman's son.

The woman surnamed Pan, 83, said she had breathed in a lot of water and asked her son to take her to hospital.

Pan said she was washing her sleeping mat by the riverside when suddenly she leaned forward and fell into the water headfirst. "I would have been in danger, if Xu Liangda had not arrived in time."

Pan and her son are both grateful to Xu Liangda and Xu Jun.

When asked if he ever considered his own safety, Xu Liangda smiled and said: "I never thought too much, and only wanted to save people."