Swimmers' bet ends in hospital

Two swimmers who challenged each other in a pounds 5 bet to cross the freezing river Thames had to be pulled to safety by the emergency services yesterday. A 58-year-old man was in intensive care last night at Charing Cross hospital, west London, after suffering a heart attack just after entering the river on the south bank near Putney, south-west London.

A second man, in his forties, was taken to Queen Mary's hospital in Roehampton, south-west London, suffering from hypothermia.

River Thames police said: 'The temperature is about three degrees centigrade, which gives you about five minutes to live.'