A woman who jumped off a bridge and broke her leg was saved by strictly-Orthodox volunteers who had been searching the river for the body of their friend.

A group of men from the Orthodox New Square village in New York were looking for David Ahronowitz, who died jumping off the George Washington Bridge in January, when they saw a 25-year-old woman make the same leap.

After his group called the emergency services, Scott Koen, 58, guided a police helicopter to where the woman was struggling, only to find that she was unable to climb the rope ladder.

He leapt in to complete the rescue.

“She started to sink,” Mr Koen told local news outlet NorthJersey.com. “I just jumped in the water and supported her while I got a line under her arms.”

He drove the boat back to shore, and the woman from New Jersey is now recovering from a broken leg and trauma at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital in Manhattan.

Including the woman, only two out of the 97 people who have jumped from the bridge since 2009 have survived.

Mr Koen was also involved in the “Miracle on the Hudson” rescue in January 2009 as a volunteer firefighter.

After both engines failed on US Airways Flight 1549 and Captain Chesley Sullenberger was forced to make an emergency landing on the river in New York, Mr Koen helped passengers off the plane and on to his boat.

The search for New Square resident Mr Ahronowitz, who committed suicide on January 22 aged 46, continues.