YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown police and firefighters credited two bystanders for helping save a 13-year-old girl from the Mahoning River a little after midnight Wednesday after she fell from the red Peanut Bridge, which is in front of the main fire station and connects downtown to Mahoning Avenue.

She was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, where she was in stable condition later.

The girl was “just out for a walk to check out downtown, due to enjoying the scenery,” a Youngstown police report states. “While looking over the edge of the bridge, her hat flew off.”

The girl stated that she tried to catch it, which resulted in her slipping and falling off the top of the bridge and landing in the river, the report states.

“While screaming for help, two Good Samaritans came down the bank and were able to successfully pull her out of the water,” it adds.

A Youngstown police officer stated in the report that he was on patrol when he responded to the bridge for the Youngstown Fire Department, reporting that a girl was screaming near the bridge.

When the officer, other officers and firefighters checked the area under the Peanut Bridge, the police officer “observed two persons on the bank of the river, holding a female, yelling that she was in the water. Due to it being below freezing … the fire department immediately began extricating her from the river bank and getting her to an ambulance that was on standby,” the report states.

While the girl was being taken to the hospital, a call came in from an address on West Boston Avenue at 12:43 a.m. in which a woman reported that her 13-year-old daughter had run away. The description matched that of the girl who had fallen into the river, the report states.

The caller was notified of the incident on the bridge and met police at the hospital.

Youngstown Fire Battalion Chief John Lightly said Wednesday that firefighters could hear “screaming from across the street in front of the fire station. And we were starting to investigate about the time a 911 call came in. PD and fire went over there and we found a female in the river.”

He said, “Somebody passing by had pulled her to the edge. She was partially in the water on the embankment.” Firefighters put a couple of ladders down toward the area of the river and railroad tracks to get close to the river and set up a “rigging system, ropes and such, to get her up the rest of the way up the snow embankment” and put her into a Stokes basket that is sometimes seen in rescues of that type. And they brought her through the edge of the woods and lifted her to the road. Ambulance personnel took care of her from there.

He said from the time firefighters responded to the screams until they had her in an ambulance was about 15 minutes, “which is pretty good for having to deal with all of the equipment that was used.

He said the bridge was snowy, icy and slippery, and the water in the river was cold. “Good work by PD getting there quick to help give us assistance. Fire did a great job, really knocked it out of the park, and whoever the bystander was who gave her initial aid. It sounds like it might be a good ending to a story for a change.”

The rescue would have been more involved with ice-rescue suits and a boat if the girl had not been on the riverbank when they got there. “Thankfully she was over to the edge,” Lightly said.

Capt. Jason Simon of the Youngstown Police Department said Wednesday that the incident is a “powerful reminder of the courage and commitment our first responders bring to the City of Youngstown every day.”

He said first responders’ “quick action and teamwork saved a young girl’s life, and we are grateful for their unwavering dedication to protecting others, no matter the danger.”

He thanked the “attentive and brave citizens who heard the initial cries for help and began helping her out of the river. This coordinated effort helped reunite this young girl with her family and reflects the very best of the people of Youngstown.”