Anglers helped rescue a man who ended up in the sea off the pier in Buncrana where a family drowned six weeks ago.

The man was said to be recovering in Letterkenny General Hospital after the incident on Lough Swilly at about 10pm last night.

The alarm was raised after the man, believed to be a foreign national living in Donegal, entered the water and was thrown a life buoy from the pier.

The fishermen pulled the rope, dragging the man to steps at the bottom of the pier, and local gardaí were quickly on the scene to help pull him to safety.

Witnesses reported the man was in the water for only a few minutes.

Firefighters who were also called to the scene treated the injured man on the pier before he was taken to hospital by ambulance.

The rescue took place weeks after five members of the one family died after the car they were in skidded down a slipway at the pier and sank.

Sean McGrotty (aged 49), his sons Mark (aged 12), and Evan (aged 8), his mother-in-law Ruth Daniels (aged 59) and her daughter Jodie Lee Daniels (aged 14) all died in the tragedy.

A four-month-old baby girl, Rionaghac-Ann, was pulled alive from the water by passer-by Davitt Walsh.

Joe Joyce, of Lough Swilly RNLI, said the scenes of emergency crews on the pier brought back painful memories.

“Dusk was falling, there were blue flashing lights on the pier… it brought everybody back to that day,” he said.