When information technology executive Filip Lou, 34, saw a Caucasian woman leap into the waters near the Merlion statue that evening, he stripped down to his briefs and jumped in after her.

By the time the police and emergency-support vehicles turned up, he had already made it to the bank and was climbing out of the water with her.

After all that drama, though, he was to find himself billed for getting the cuts on his hands and feet seen to in a hospital emergency room.

The price of his heroism? $90.

Speaking to The Straits Times on the telephone yesterday, he said he was walking towards One Fullerton with his friends after dinner when he saw the woman perched on the railing.

He said he yelled at her not to jump, but she did so anyway.

'So I grabbed the life buoy and threw it in after her but she did not make any attempt to hold on,' he recalled.

Mr Lou, who works in an IBM company in Sydney and is here for about a week for a work-related conference, passed his cellphone and wallet to his friends, took off his clothes and jumped in.

He said the woman was neither on drugs nor drunk.

She gave her name as Annika and let on that her boyfriend had just broken off their relationship.

'She said she had nothing else to live for. I tried to counsel her while floating in the cold, dark waters till the rescue team arrived a few minutes later,' he said.

The police and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) confirmed that a call about two people being in the river came at 9pm, and that two fire engines, two support vehicles and an ambulance were sent out.

Mr Lou said of the cuts he picked up while on the rough stone steps on the waters' edge: 'I was not aware that my feet were bleeding and leaving bloody footprints on the sidewalk. I was more concerned with people photographing me in my underwear!'

Read the full story in today's edition of The Straits Times.