‘I thought they were gone... the car was going down so fast’

A mother and her young sons were seconds from death after their car accidentally plunged into the river Lee.

But tragedy was averted when the boys’ father and two onlookers dived in and managed to save them just as the car sank beneath the surface of the main channel of the Lee close to the Port of Cork’s city quays.

Eyewitnesses and emergency service personnel hailed the rescuers as “brave heroes”.