A PERSHORE postman who pulled a man from a raging stream says he was simply in the right place at the right time.

Nick Davis from Deerhurst Terrace, Pershore, has been nominated in the bravery category of the Royal Mail First Class People Awards.

The regional winner from the shortlisted nominees will be invited to a national ceremony on Monday, March 26.

Mr Davis had just returned home from work when a dog walker knocked on his door and told him a man was being swept away in a ford where Walcot Lane meets Bow Brook, on the road between Pershore and Drakes Broughton.

The man had been driving a BMW three series when it began to float away. When Mr Davis arrived the man was clinging to a tree overhanging the stream as he battled the current.

Mr Davis, aged 39, used a 120-foot rope from his Land Rover to pull the man out of the water.

Firefighters, who would have had to use a boat to get him out, arrived and helped Mr Davis pull him to safety during the rescue at 7.30pm on Thursday, October 5, last year.

The man had already been in the water 15 or 20 minutes when he was rescued and was very cold so firefighters wrapped him in a blanket.

Mr Davis said: "I could see this white shirt in the water. His car had floated away. He had been visiting his girlfriend up the lane and missed the turning. He rang her and she went to get a neighbour, who arrived shortly after me.

"He was in five feet of running water and he couldn't see the banks. The current was very strong. If he had moved out from where he was it would have taken him." Mr Davis said he had not expected recognition. "I was surprised. I was just doing my bit. I just happened to be there at the right time, with the right equipment," he said. "He could quite easily have died."

Mr Davis and Worcester postie Keith Jones, who pulled a man from a burning car, will get £100 and each be entered for the regional prize of £500. One could go forward for the national title.

Other local postal workers recognised include Worcester's Paul Handy in the community category, nominated for his fund-raising work for the British Heart Foundation, Anthony Nolan Trust and other charities.

Tenbury Wells staff were nominated after finding a murder victim in an alley near the delivery office and apprehending the alleged attacker until police arrived.