A marine rescue officer jumped into a heavily polluted river to save a drowning dog.

Philippine Coast Guard officer Zion Son was relaxing in their barracks next to the Pasig river in Manila, the Philippines, when they saw the pooch struggling to stay afloat while swimming in the water on September 20 evening.

The officer then called his colleagues to help him pull the white pooch to safety by climbing down and clinging to a tire on the side of a bridge.

In under 15 minutes, the dog was saved after Zion grabbed its collar and carried it up to the platform where his colleague was waiting.

The frightened dog was aggressive at first and tried to bite its rescuers but it eventually calmed down when the man carried it up.

Zion said: ‘The dog probably belonged to one of the tugboat owners around here. It likely fell overboard into the water. I will be feeding him for now while we look for his home.’

The Philippines’ Pasig River is one of the world’s top sources of ocean plastic waste, according to a peer-reviewed study released by the American Association for the Advancement of Science last 2020.