DUMBO – A WOMAN AND her cat were rescued from the East River underneath the Manhattan Bridge last week, according to police, who posted body camera footage of the incident on social media Tuesday.
Officers responded at around 2:45 p.m. on Thursday to the northern tip of Brooklyn Bridge Park, where a small beach gives visitors access to the water. Multiple 911 callers reported a woman struggling to swim. A police officer entered the water with a life preserver, tethered to a rope being held by other officers and Parks and Fire department personnel on land, and helped bring the woman back to shore. Parks workers, at the same time, went to save the cat in the water.
The woman was in significant distress by the time she was rescued and attended to by first responders. Both she and the cat are expected to recover. One officer was also brought to the hospital for care.
It was unclear at press time how the woman and cat ended up in the water.
Currents in the East and Hudson rivers can be deceptively strong; both are estuaries with tidal flows.
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