A WOMAN who heard the cries of a drowning dog-walker who had fallen through the ice of a frozen lake has spoken of her horror at the tragedy.

Gillian Hayne, 41, lives by Dobbs Weir Park, Nazeing, where an as yet unnamed woman in her 40s died yesterday (January 14) after she plunged through ice in an apparent attempt to rescue her dog.

Ms Hayne said: “I heard something. I thought it was an animal at first, then it carried on. I thought it was someone calling their dog. I went to pick up my daughter from school, came back at 3.15pm with an ambulance outside and someone said a woman had gone in the lake. I now realise that what I heard was the woman calling out and I didn't realise at the time which is awful.

“From then on more and more fire service and ambulance turned up. The whole lane was chock-a-block. They had the flood lights set up where they were trying to get her out. The police divers got her out about 6pm.”

Ms Hayne said she often walked her own dog Oscar at Dobbs Weir and had grown concerned in recent days about the ice on the lake.

She said: “It's very unusual for this lake to freeze. I've never known it to freeze. I walk my dog every day out there -he was actually on the ice where the woman went in about two days ago. But you use your common sense- you don't go on an icy lake.

“It's a lady we know of with a boxer. She loved that dog. We used to see her out dog walking. The dog must have gone out on the ice and she followed. It's very sad. Very tragic. Quite horrible really.”

The woman victim, believed to live near Dobbs Weir Road, Nazeing, walked out around 40ft on to the lake, ambulance services said.

Firefighters, police marines and divers all attended the scene in an attempt to save her life, and she was eventually pulled from the lake shortly before 6pm.

East of England Ambulance spokesman Gary Sanderson, who attended the incident, said: "Paramedics worked closely with the fire service to treat and stabilise the woman at the scene before she was rushed to an awaiting trauma team at the Princess Alexandra hospital in Harlow, where sadly she died. Our thoughts are with her family at this tragic time."