"I DO not regret jumping into the water," Canadian Joshua Freund told Shanghai Daily yesterday as he recounted how he bravely dived into the freezing cold Huangpu River to save a Chinese man who was trying to commit suicide.

"It kind of happened naturally, and I would do it again if something like it happened again," the 24-year-old, who fractured his ankle during the rescue, said.

Freund was walking along the Bund and taking photos near the Shanghai Monument to People's Heroes with his girlfriend around 10pm on November 13 when he saw an elderly man jump into the Huangpu River.