Sydney  - A 14-year-old Australian dived 20 metres from a bridge into an icy cold river to save a 70-year-old woman after he spotted a pile of clothes and read a suicide note, news reports said Wednesday.

Corey Warburton leapt from Grafton Bridge into the Clarence River when he spied the woman floating face down.

"I saw her move her hand towards her face and I kind of, without hesitation, ripped my shirt off and my shoes and dove in," Corey told a local television network. "I wasn't really feeling any emotion, or the cold or the water, because all I really wanted to do was get myself and the lady to safety."

Warburton, who is being hailed a hero in his east coast coal town, managed to keep the woman afloat for more than 20 minutes while he swam 80 metres to the river bank.

"I was trying to keep her head out of the water," he recalled. "She kept going under and whenever she did, I went under too, so I had to try and pull myself and her back to the surface again. It was fairly hard."

Police are recommending Warburton for a bravery award. "One of them came up and hugged me, which was a little odd at the time," the superman schoolboy said. "He called me a bloody hero and asked the other coppers to do something special for me." (dpa)