TOURISTS had to be stopped from jumping to the rescue when a man jumped into the River Dee last week.

The man, who is still unconscious, is in a serious but stable condition at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Passengers on board The Jackie, owned by the Chester Boat Company, saw the man floating in the river on Thursday afternoon.

He had dived from a riverside platform and, it is believed, hit his head, knocking himself out.

Boat skipper Martin Holdstock said: “Some people were shouting from the bank. They said there was someone in the water.

“I knocked the boat out of gear, thinking it was a diver – but then I saw him, floating face down.”

Dale Ellis, 26, of Beeston Pathway, Handbridge, a rowing coach with the Royal Chester Rowing Club, pulled the man on to the Sea Slide, a coaching boat.

Martin added: “I had to keep a couple of passengers from jumping off the boat because they wanted to help him.

“I had to tell one woman to stay down, that the body had been pulled out of the water and there was nothing else she could do.

“Dale was there in a flash and I know he did all he could to help.”

Police spokeswoman Shelley Williams said yesterday the man, aged 39 and from the Chester area, was still on a ventilator but has not yet regained consciousness.