Bhubaneswar: A 49-year-old woman was rescued from the Kuakhai river after she jumped into it following depression on Monday afternoon.

Fire personnel rescued the woman, identified as Sumitra Kumar Devi, a resident of Behera Sahi at Nayapalli, nearly two hours after she had jumped into the river.

Though the family members of the woman remained tight-lipped about the incident, police said the woman reached the Kuakhai bridge near Hansapal in an auto-rickshaw. "Few eyewitnesses noticed her jumping into the river and informed us immediately. We rushed to the spot and the auto-rickshaw operator told us that the woman asked her to stop midway on the bridge and immediately jumped," said a police official.

The fire personnel also reached the spot and started a rescue operation with a powerboat and life jackets. "We decided to search for the woman in the downstream of the river instead at the spot. As many as 12 fire personnel searched for her in the river, and she was finally rescued near the Tankapani road after two hours," said deputy fire officer (Bhubaneswar) Ramesh Chandra Majhi.

The fire personnel also rushed her to Capital Hospital.

Further police investigation revealed the woman of suffering from depression after her husband, a Nalco employee who used to work at Damanjodi in Koraput district, had gone missing three years ago.

"The second son of the woman had also died in a road accident in 2008. After her husband had gone missing, she went under depression and used to tell her family members frequently that she has lost every reason to live," said a police official.

Capital Hospital doctors said the woman was out of danger and was likely to be discharged on Tuesday.

The fire personnel said the woman was lucky not to have suffered any physical injury, as the river was full of floodwater. "Had she jumped on another day, she would have suffered serious injuries. Her low body weight kept her floating in the flow," said a fire personnel.