Brothers Dwayne and Jason Black have been hailed as heroes by their dad for rescuing a drowning man from the Kennet and Avon Canal.

The man had been in the water for about four minutes and was face down in the canal when the brothers reached him.

Their father Golly Black who lives in Pewsey said: “I can’t tell you how proud I am to have two sons like this.”

The man had been drinking in a bar in Pewsey the previous evening and other customers said he ignored advice and set off to walk along the canal towpath to Seend where he said he lived on a boat.

The next day, Dwayne Black, 41, a mechanic, was carrying out repairs on his brother’s cruiser Silver Emblem between Wilcot and Pewsey when he noticed a man acting strangely.

He said the man was obviously drunk and was swigging from a vodka bottle.

“I went off for a couple of hours but when I got back he was still there acting as if he was drunk,” said Mr Black.

“I thought I’d better keep an eye on him. He walked up to the road but then he walked unsteadily back down to the canal and I could see that he’d had more than a few.

“I saw him fall over on the grass but, when we went up, he said he was okay so we continued to keep an eye on him.”

Later the brothers saw that the man had gone in the water and ran towards him.

Jason Black, 38 said: “He was over half way across the canal and at first his head was under the water.

“When his head bobbed up I shouted at him to try to get towards the bank.”

There was a steep bank about three feet high and Dwayne Black said: “He could not have got out on his own. He would have died if we had not been there.”

The brothers called an ambulance on their mobile and maintained contact while wrapping the man in a duvet.

“His lips had gone blue and he was lapsing in and out of consciousness.

“We kept talking to him until the ambulance arrived about 15 minutes later,” said Dwayne Black.

The rescued man was treated at Salisbury District Hospital.