A SEMI-conscious woman was hauled from the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in Blackburn by emergency services.
The woman, who is not being named, but is believed to have been a patient at Pendle Psychiatric Unit in Queen's Park Hospital, Blackburn, was spotted floating in the canal near Highfield Road by a local resident on Sunday morning.
Firefighters from Blackburn and a Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service water rescue team rushed to the scene at 8.20am and hauled her to the towpath where she was treated by paramedics for shock and cold, then taken to Blackburn Royal Infirmary.
Insp Mick Laraway, of Blackburn Police, said: "We received reports of a body in the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and when we arrived discovered an elderly woman semi-conscious in the water.
"She was hauled to safety by firefighters, then treated for shock and exposure by paramedics.
"We estimate she had been in the water for several minutes and at this stage have no idea how she came to be there, although there are no suspicious circumstances."
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