OXFORD East MP Anneliese Dodds and city councillors took to the water to raise money to tackle poverty in central America.

The annual sponsored swim, which has now been going for more than 30 years, took place at Hinksey open-air pool on Friday in support of Oxford’s twin city of Leon in Nicaragua.

Deputy Lord Mayor Mohammed Altaf-Khan and the Oxford East MP opened the event, before Ms Dodds also took part.

She swam along with Oxford city councillors, including Mike Rowley, Mark Lygo, Sian Taylor and honorary Alderman and former council leader Bob Price.

The Oxford East MP tweeted: “Great to see so many swimmers supporting the Oxford Leon Association annual swimathon at ⁦Hinksey Pools⁩.

“Beautiful sunshine and lots of money being raised for essential support for our twinned city in Nicaragua.”

Last year’s sponsored swim raised £4,000 for clean-water projects in and around Leon and this year money will go towards social and cultural projects.

Oxford has been twinned with Leon since 1986 and it is one of eight cities it is twinned with.

The others are Leiden, Bonn, Grenoble, Perm, Wroclaw, Padua and Ramallah in Palestine.