A local construction worker, suspended from a crane, drops a woman into a rescue boat after she fell into the Des Moines River near the Center Street Dam in downtown Des Moines

A local construction worker, suspended from a crane, rescues a woman who fell into the Des Moines River

A local construction worker, suspended from a crane, rescues a woman who fell into the Des Moines River near the Center Street Dam in downtown Des Moines, Iowa

A local construction worker, suspended from a crane, rescues a woman who fell into the Des Moines River near the Center Street Dam in downtown Des Moines, Iowa

This is the dramatic moment when a construction worker suspended from a crane pulls a drowning woman to safety from the raging waters at the foot of a dam.

She had fallen into the Des Moines river in Iowa when the boat she was crewing with her husband capsized.

Kept afloat by her life jacket, she spent nearly 30 minutes fighting the torrent until a group of building workers spotted her.

One, Jason Oglesbee, was lowered in a makeshift harness suspended from a crane and managed to grab the unnamed woman.

The crane driver was then able to drag the pair to calmer water where a rescue boat was waiting to take her on board.

Her husband was dead when he was pulled from the water.

>>Click on the image to the right to launch gallery

Belfast Telegraph