THE life of a pregnant woman drowning in the Mediterranean Sea was saved by a member of West Mercia Search and Rescue.

Darren Lovering made the dramatic rescue yesterday (Thursday) while volunteering as a rescue swimmer with the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS).

Mr Lovering, who covers the Worcestershire area as part of WMSAR, was involved in the recovery of two coastguard life rafts which had been dropped to help people aboard a damaged inflatable boat.

Spotting a hand underneath one of the life rafts, he jumped into the water to rescue a woman who had become trapped underneath.

During that rescue he spotted a second woman underwater who had drowned.

The 45-year-old managed to reach the second woman and perform life-saving CPR until his lifeboat returned to medical crews on the MOAS ship, Phoenix.

Doctors told him later that day that the woman is alive and also four months pregnant.

A spokesman for WMSAR said: "We take our hats off to Darren and the other volunteers at MOAS for doing an extraordinary job and helping some of the most vulnerable people in the world."

MOAS is an international not-for-profit organisation that provides professional search-and-rescue services along the world’s deadliest border crossing – the sea.

Currently, MOAS is operating in the central Mediterranean with two vessels, the Phoenix and the Responder, equipped with two Schiebel S-100 camcopter drones, fast rescue crafts and a crew of rescue professionals.

Mr Lovering is joining the crew of the Phoenix as a rescue swimmer, with his training in Swiftwater Rescue as part of the West Mercia Search and Rescue team playing a key part of his role.

A WMSAR team member since 2008, Mr Lovering has been involved in dozens of searches across Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, as well as deploying further afield to national flooding incidents.

Anyone wishing to support the mission can donate via moas.eu/donate.