Stranded with baby as flood waters rose

A MAN waded through waist-deep sewage to save a one-year-old baby after their car was caught in a terrifying flash flood yesterday.

- By WESLEY HOLMES

Peter Alker, 49, was a passenger in his friend's Ford Fiesta car when heavy rains hit, causing a three-foot deluge of water under the railway bridge on Bedford Road, Bootle.

The incident happened at around 12.30pm, when Peter and his friend Carly were driving into Kirkdale with Carly's one-year-old daughter, Mabel, in the back seat.

Peter, from Kirkdale, said: "As we went down we saw the puddle, but it looked normal. But as we drove into it the car just started floating and turning sideways across the road, bobbing around. Carly was trying to steer, but couldn't steer because the wheels were off the ground.

"I put the window down to see how deep the water was, and if I hadn't done that it would have been a disaster. The water was literally up to the door handle, and right after that the car just stopped. If I hadn't turned the window down when I did, we wouldn't have been able to get out of the car."

Carly, 27, placed a desperate call to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service as the filthy floodwater began to fill their car, trapping them inside.