A man who was rescued from a freezing river by pub regulars was last night still fighting for his life in hospital.

The man leapt from the footbridge over the fast-flowing River Arun in Littlehampton at around 7pm on Wednesday.

Heroic punters in the Arun View Inn, in Wharf Road, saw the 28-year-old Littlehampton man jump and went to his rescue.

A member of pub staff, two customers and a fourth person, went to the aid of the man, who was airlifted to Worthing Hospital by the Solent Coastguard.

A spokesman from Sussex Police said they were waiting for the man to recover so they can piece together exactly what happened.

Littlehampton RNLI operations manager Nick Walters said: “Someone jumped off the foot bridge that runs over the river.

“We don't know the details of how or why that happened.

“Several people went in to recover him. Another four people got into the water.

“The fellow that jumped was recovered to the west bank above the footbridge.

“He was not in a good condition.

“Paramedics were working on him a long time.

“Then he was taken to hospital in the Coastguard helicopter.

“A couple of the people in the water got out themselves.

“We recovered two of them.

“They had to be looked after to regain their body heat because it wasn't really swimming.”

Det Sgt John Witt of Littlehampton CID said: “The man is still very poorly, in a critical condition.

“We are not treating it as suspicious and think he jumped rather than fell or was pushed.

“We are still trying to work out exactly why he ended up in the water and want to talk to people present at the time.”

A spokesman for Solent Coastgard said: “We took a man from Littlehampton to Worthing hospital in the helicopter.

“When we left him things were looking a bit more positive, but he was still in a very serious condition.”

Anyone who saw the incident is urged to contact Littlehampton police on 0845 60 70 999.