"SHE was shouting: 'I'm going to jump; I don't want to live'."

That's what witnesses said happened when a 14-year-old girl plunged off Lendal Bridge in York.

Tom Davies, of Stamford Bridge, and Natalie Gibson, of Haxby, York, both aged 17, heard a commotion on the bridge around 8pm on Thursday.

They saw people struggling on the north bank side of the bridge.

Tom said: "The girl who jumped was on the edge of the bridge. She looked like she was having a fight with her friends, but they were obviously trying to restrain her.

"She managed to get free from her friends and ran across the bridge. She didn't stop to think, she just toppled over headfirst."

Natalie said: "We were there throughout the whole thing. She popped up out of the water straight away, and managed to get hold of a boat moored underneath the bridge, at the boat hire centre. She was screaming. We thought she'd hurt her legs."

As reported in The Press yesterday, the girl was rescued by a passing crew from York City Rowing Club.

Club captain Gill Porteous said the rescuers were a senior coxless quad team.

She said: "They heard a 'whoosh' noise, and the girl was pointed out to them. The bowman in our quad jumped into the water and got hold of the girl."

A police spokesman said the girl had been admitted to the observation ward at York Hospital, but had later been discharged.

Updated: 09:35 Saturday, May 13, 2006