Man survives five-hour icy river plunge

A man has survived five hours submerged in icy water after crashing car into a river in the United States, officials have said.

Emergency services were called at around early on Wednesday morning after a car was spotted submerged in California's Klamath River.

When officers from the California Highway Patrol and Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office arrived at the scene they found a red Ford Fusion in the water and began work to pull it out of the water with the help of a tow truck.

When the vehicle was finally removed just before 8am local time - more than two and a half hours after the emergency call - they found 28-year-old Michael Finn still alive inside.

Finn told officers he believed he had crashed at around 3am - around five hours before the rescue.

He was able to survive by breathing from a pocket of air inside the car. He was taken to a local medical centre and treated for exposure.