Woman rescues pair after car plunges into river

An Invercargill woman saved her uncle and 7-year-old daughter after their car left the road and was submerged upside down in a South Otago river yesterday.

Police said 25-year-old Stacy Lea Watson was a passenger in a 4WD vehicle that plunged in to the swollen Waiwera River.

She freed herself and went back into the river twice - to save her uncle, Malcolm Watson, 54, of Palmerston North, from the driver's seat and then to drag out her daughter Courtney, who was in the back seat. All three were wearing seatbelts.