A viral CCTV footage shows the dramatic rescue of a child by a young railway officer in India from the oncoming train. The incident was reported this week after CCTV footage of railway officer, Mayur Shelke, a pointsman at Vangani station in Maharashtra circulated on social media attracting international attention.
He could be seen running along the tracks and lifting the child to safety as a train rapidly approaches. “Indian Railways feels proud to have employees like him and salutes him for his bravery and utmost devotion to duty,” the government agency said on social media.
The video shows the kid was walking with his mother as they make their way to cross the platform. Carrying a heavy burden and hampered by a weak vision, the mother loses the grip on the boy’s hand. The child tumbles on the railway track with a train approaching from just meters away.
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Watching all this incident, Mayur Shelke, jumped on the railway track and rescued the child within a blink of an eye. Quick action by the man saved the boy and himself in the incident.
He received massive praise on social media from India and across the world. “I ran towards the child but also thought that I might be in danger too. Still, I thought I should save him,” Shelke told Asian News International. “The woman (with the child) was visually impaired. She could do nothing.”
In another interview to Times Now News, he said, that: The child who [slipped and fell] is someone’s precious child, too. My child is the apple of my eye, so must that boy in peril have been to his parents. I just felt something stir within me and I rushed without thinking twice.”
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For his exemplary courage, he was gifted ₹50,000 ($660) honorarium by the Ministry of Railways.