A WOMAN narrowly escaped being drowned in her car this week as the tide rolled in at the Chiswick bankside while her car would not start.

She frantically called Chiswick fire station from her mobile phone when she found herself in the nightmare situation on Wednesday outside Mawson Arms pub in Chiswick Mall.

The water began seeping into the car but the electrics were out of action. Scrambling for the door handle, she could not get out.

The fire service arrived within minutes just after 3pm to find the car flooded with one metre of tidal water from the River Thames. The firemen decided to call the police and lifeboat rescue team for assistance.

Chiswick Lifeboat Association station manager, Wayne Bellamy, said: The car was in water when the lifeboat got there because of the rising tide.

With the help of firemen we recovered her from the car. The rescue boat had arrived in four minutes

This is the first time we have rescued a person out of a car. We had rescued a dog last week before the car filled with water,'' he added.

The rescuers worked with speed to get her out and managed to remove the door and pull her out in 40 minutes.

An Ambulance crew attended to the woman but she refused to be assessed and was not taken to hospital. She had no injuries, but a police spokesman said that she had suffered from shock.