Teen pulled from canal was minutes from death

Mum alerted to rescue by Facebook

- By PAIGE OLDFIELD

DEBORA Hunt was cooking tea when she realised her eldest son had still not returned home from school. "Where's Ethan?" she turned and asked her husband, Eamon. "I'm really worried about him."

Though a million different scenarios were running through her mind, nothing could prepare the mum-of-two for the truth. Ethan hadn't missed his train or been kept behind at school - the 16-year-old was fighting for his life in the Manchester Ship Canal.

Debora can recall the moment she found out what had happened through a Facebook post.

"I honestly thought I'd lost him," the 53-year-old told the M.E.N. "I screamed at my husband to get to the locks as soon as possible." Ethan, who lives in Irlam, had been making his way home from St.

Antony's Roman Catholic School in Stretford when the incident happened on January 10. He was walking along Irlam Locks when he a came across flooded pathway.