A member of the Thunder Bay Police Service and a group of good Samaritans are responsible for preventing a bad situation on the James Street swing bridge from escalating Tuesday evening.

Police received reports around 10 p.m. of a woman hanging off the guardrail of the bridge, and responded along with Thunder Bay Fire Rescue and Superior North EMS.

One of the first officers on scene, Constable Evan Haywood, noticed a group of residents huddled near an area of the bridge and realized they had reached through the guard rail and were holding onto the woman preventing her from falling into the freezing Kaministiqua River below.

Haywood immediately jumped into action climbing over the guardrail, and managed to get a better leverage on the woman to pull her back up and onto the bridge.

The woman was taken to hospital by EMS for further evaluation.

A video of the dramatic rescue can be found here.