How did she survive? Hero father reveals how he saved daughter, 3, after she was sucked down drain and carried 200ft in underground tunnel

One moment she was splashing happily in puddles under her mother's watchful gaze.

The next Leona Baxter was simply sucked into the earth.

The three-year-old had stumbled into a concealed storm drain and was carried 230ft underground before being shot out unconscious into a raging river.

Her father, who had frantically followed the pipe's path to the riverbank, spotted her blue raincoat floating in the water.

'Then I saw her hair and realised she was face down in the water,' he said yesterday. 'I jumped over the side and into the water, grabbed her and put her across my shoulder.

'She was completely still and wasn't breathing. I remember thinking "oh God, no".'

He managed to get her to her mother, Beverley, who was waiting on the riverbank.

Miraculously Leona spluttered back into life. She was taken to hospital where she was treated for cuts, bruises and hypothermia.

Last night she managed a big smile, safe in the arms of the mother who feared she would never see her little girl again.

'We are the luckiest parents alive,' Mrs Baxter said. 'Someone was watching over us. I just thought "thank God we have got Leona, thank God that our family is still intact".'

Her father, Mark, a 34-year-old RAF sergeant, told how their family outing had turned to horror when they stopped at a park on their way home to North Yorkshire after visiting family in Co Durham on Sunday.

Relieved: Leona with her mother Beverley, father Mark and sister Kiah, was saved by her father after being swept down a flooded drain

Days of heavy rain had left parts of the Riverside Park at Chester-Le-Street under water. Dozens of children were splashing in the puddles that had formed on the flood plain.

'Leona and our eldest daughter Kiah put their wellies on and were splashing through this large pond-like puddle,' said Mr Baxter. 'They were just really enjoying the water.

'I was playing with our dog, Brophy, and throwing a stick for him and that's when my wife shouted "Leona". When I turned round I couldn't see her. I thought she had just fallen into the puddle, went under the water and that she would come back up again in a couple of seconds coughing and spluttering.

'When she didn't I ran through the puddle to see if I could get her. At that point I noticed that there was a plughole effect in the water.

'When I got close the water was strong. I dropped down and stuck my arm down the hole and I couldn't feel anything. There was just water swirling around.

'I didn't want to think about what could have happened.

'Then my dog got sucked down the same hole. At that point I jumped down again and tried to stick my arm down further.

Danger: Workers inspect the storm drain where Leona was sucked down and swept 75 yards before being thrown back up into the River Wear

'There was still nothing. That was it. I came back up. Instead of thinking about the worst I started thinking about where she might have gone. I thought the river is just there, it's going to be a storm drain and if it's going to spit out, if it's going to go anywhere, it'll go to the river.

'So I left the whirlpool still swirling round and ran across to the river.'

Then he spotted his little girl. He jumped in and grabbed her but found himself struggling against the current.

Mr Baxter was able to pass her to his wife, waiting on the bank with a passerby. Paramedics had also arrived by then.

Flood danger: Water engineers next to the giant puddle where Leona disappeared

Last night at the University of North Durham Hospital Mrs Baxter was trying to forget the horror.

'She just vanished in front of us,' she said. 'One minute she was there the next she had vanished.

'I thought I'd lost her. I thought that was it. I just kept saying to Mark "we've got to get her, we've got to find her".'

Leona remembers everything about her ordeal.

'She keeps saying that she sank and that she was trying to do her star-float like her swimming teacher had said but she couldn't because she kept getting squashed,' her mother said.

'She then said that Daddy got her.'

Wet and weary: Flooded streets close to York city centre after the River Ouse burst its banks

Rescue workers have been unable to find Brophy, the family's 10-month-old boxer mastiff cross.

The Baxters believe that the force of him being sucked into the drain after Leona may have saved her life.

'I can only think that she got snagged on something in the drain and that Brophy followed her in and the force of him dislodged her,' Mr Baxter said. 'That's the only reason I can think of as to why she wasn't further down the river when I got to her.'

Leona is expected to stay in hospital for another two days.