A POLICEMAN has spoken of the moment he braved the icy waters of a lake to rescue a Blackburn man who had been lying unconscious at the bottom for 15 minutes.

The 27-year-old man, who has not been named, is in intensive care in a Cumbria hospital after the accident.

He is thought to have been on a camping trip with friends when he got into difficulties trying to retrieve a rowing boat on Derwentwater, Cumbria.

A spokesman for Cumbria Police said by the time Sgt Alan Weightman and PC Richard Bowman arrived at the scene, the man's friends said he had been underwater for 10 minutes.

The pair then spent another five minutes searching for him as the light faded at 10.30pm on Saturday.

One of the officers started diving but couldn't find the man, although they found the boat he had been looking for and continued their search by torchlight 40 metres from the shore, where the lake is 10ft deep.

Eventually one spotted something in the water and dived in to pull the unconscious man from the bottom of the lake.

By this time a rescue boat had arrived and he was put into it and taken to the shore where an ambulance crew tried for five minutes to resuscitate him.

A doctor arrived and the man was taken to a cottage hospital in Keswick and later transferred to Cumbria Infirmary where he was said to be in a serious condition yesterday. .

Sgt Weightman said: "PC Bowman and I went down to the lake and he stood near the edge initially while I went out further into the water but we couldn't find him.

"We then got the rowing boat that was drifting and Richard did a couple of sweeps around the general area.

"I saw something on the bottom of the lake and initially went down but again couldn't find him because it was pitch black."

Using a boat hook the officers tried in vain to pull up the man and, after another abortive dive, PC Bowman shone his torch on the water.

"I was then able to spot him, dived and pulled him up," said Sgt Weightman.

A spokesman for Cumbria Police said: "It was pitch black, the water was cold but they didn't have time to think about that."