Good Samaritan rescues drowning dogs from the Brisbane River

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A good Samaritan has been filmed rescuing a pair of dogs from drowning in the Brisbane River.

In the footage supplied to 7NEWS.com.au, the man can be seen carefully climbing down a cement embankment in the Brisbane suburb of Teneriffe on Monday night to grab the distressed pair while his worried friends look on.

Aleks Balodis told 7NEWS.com.au that he was walking back from the Breakfast Creek Hotel with friends about 9pm when one member of the group noticed “something in the water”.

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“My friend was like, ‘What is that?’, and we saw the dogs in the water,” he said.

“We ran down to rescue them, we used a monkey arm chain to pull them up”.

“The bigger dog, a staffy, had a collar and was easy to pull up, but the frenchie I had to grab by the scruff of his neck to get him up”.

Balodis said they called Brisbane City Council who had already received reports of the dogs stuck in the river at Teneriffe Ferry Terminal, more than 1km from the Breakfast Creek Hotel where the dogs were found.

Friends assisted the rescuer by holding onto his hand as he slid down the concrete wall. Credit: Aleks BalodisThe man grabbed the dogs, believed to be a frenchie and a staffy, and pulled them to safety. Credit: Aleks Balodis

“I wonder if we weren’t walking down the river at that exact time what would have happened”,” he said.

“It’s just good timing”.

The dogs were returned to their owner unharmed an hour later, who called Balodis to say thank you. He told Balodis his son had accidentally left the door open at their Brunswick Rd home.

“He said the dogs had not seen each other in a while and were very excited and ran away for a doggies boys’ night out.”

It is not known how the French bulldog and the Staffordshire bull terrier ended up in the river, unable to climb out, or how long they had been in the water.