'Superhero' railway worker in India saves boy from oncoming train
PHOTO: Screengrab/Twitter/PiyushGoyal
PUBLISHED ONApril 21, 2021 8:45 AMByXavier Poh
He sprinted on the track, lifting a child onto the platform mere seconds before a train pulled in.
A railway worker in Mumbai, India has been hailed as a superhero on social media after he saved a six-year-old boy's life on April 17.
In closed-circuit television footage that went viral, the child was seen leading his visually impaired mum as they walked on the train platform.
However, they got too close to the edge and he fell onto the track. As the train approached the station, she realised that her child was in danger and cried for help.
Railway worker Mayur Shelke came to the rescue. He ran towards the boy, threw him onto the platform and climbed up himself just in the nick of time.
Other concerned passers-by went up to the mum and son to check on them.
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Not many would've had the courage to pull off such a daring rescue.
"I saw the kid falling and the train speeding towards him. There was no chance he would have lived had I not intervened," Shelke told Mid-Day newspaper.
While he was afraid of the oncoming train, Shelke said there was no time to think at all and he was determined to save the boy.
His heroic act was commended by many netizens including India minister of railways Piyush Goyal.
"Very proud of Mayur Shelke, Railwayman from the Vangani Railway Station in Mumbai who has done an exceptionally courageous act, risked his own life & saved a child's life," he tweeted.
Besides the praise, Shelke will be receiving 50,000 Indian Rupees (S$880.58) for his good deed, added the railways ministry.