Dramatic footage shows Indian railway worker’s last-gasp rescue of 6-year-old boy who fell on tracks
- Mayur Shelke has been hailed as a ‘superhero’ for saving the young boy from the path of an oncoming express train at Vangani station, east of Mumbai
- The 30-year-old told a local newspaper there was ‘no time to think’, as he instinctively reacted to the screams of the boy’s partially sighted mother
An Indian railway worker has been hailed as a “superhero” after he sprinted more than 30 metres along a track to grab a boy from the path of an express train.
The six-year-old boy was with his partially sighted mother on Saturday at Vangani station – about 70 kilometres (42 miles) east of Mumbai – when he fell off the platform edge onto the track. Shelke was alerted by cries for help from the mother and immediately started running along the track.
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Heroic man saves young boy from oncoming train in India
He is seen in images released by the Indian Central Railways grabbing the boy, throwing him back onto the platform and then climbing up himself barely two seconds before the Udyan Express thundered through.
“I saw the kid falling and the train speeding towards him. There was no chance he would have lived had I not intervened,” Shelke was quoted as saying by the Mid-Day newspaper.
He said he had been scared of the looming train, but added: “There was no time to think at all, I was determined to save him.”