CAIRO: An Egyptian policeman has been hailed a hero after he was caught on camera catching a five-year-old boy who fell from a third-floor balcony.
The video shows the incredible moment Kamel Gaied gathers Ammar Moataz in his arms just before he would have plunged on to the road.
“I imagined it was my child falling and didn’t hesitate one second to rescue him,” said Gaied, who was knocked unconscious from the impact, which sent him sprawling to the floor.
Moataz was unharmed in the incident, which took place in Assiut in southern Egypt earlier this week.
“They worked hard to save my child, they rescued him from death. Thank you for saving both him and us,” Moataz’s mother said in a televised interview.
The boy had been playing unsupervised in a family friend's apartment when he managed to climb on to the balcony and somehow got trapped.
Police were alerted when a neighbour spotted the boy dangling from the balcony and screamed out for help.
The video from a bank’s security camera shows a group of policemen in a small cordoned off area preparing to try and catch the child with an old rug.
But Gaied noticed the boy was about to fall and that the carpet was in the wrong place. He positioned himself accurately held out his arms and provided himself as a buffer between Moataz and the ground.
The video was posted to a local Facebook page, and soon went viral.
The police officers were met by Assiut Governer Yasser El-Dessouki who commended their bravery.
Egypt’s interior ministry released the video with a statement saying the child was unharmed but one of the policemen was injured and treated in hospital.
