A delivery driver in Vietnam was hailed a hero after attempting to break the fall of a toddler who had fallen from the 12th-floor of an apartment complex.
Nguyen Ngoc Manh, 31, was sitting in his truck on Sunday before delivering a package to a high-rise building in Hanoi when he heard a commotion outside.
Manh told the Anninhthudo local news outlet he initially dismissed the sounds of a child crying as nothing but a tantrum.
But when he noticed other panicked people on the street looking up, he stuck his head out the window to investigate the source of the pandaemonium.
It's a good thing he did.
Manh saw a little girl dangling from the precipice, 146 feet high off the ground.
Being a father himself, his paternal instinct to save the child immediately kicked in. He sprung into action by getting out of his vehicle to gauge where the toddler might land and climbed over a six-foot barrier that stood between the complex and where he was parked.
Manh told VN Express:
"I scaled the wall and saw that she could fall onto the metallic roof of the house used to store electric generators for the complex, so I tried to climb on top of it. I made it, but couldn't stand firmly, as the roof was crooked."
When the toddler lost her grip and fell, Manh said he slipped on the sloped awning but managed to fling himself forward in an attempt to break her fall.
Horrifying footage taken from a neighboring high-rise of the toddler plummeting was shared online.
In the video clip below, you can hear the sounds of a woman screaming out to the falling child, unaware she would survive.
WARNING: distressing footage
"I tried to reach out my hand and took the maximum effort to catch the girl," said Manh, who had sprained his arm while in the process of at least trying to prevent the child from falling straight to the ground.
Other footage taken from what appeared to be a surveillance camera showed Manh climbing onto the metallic awning and preparing to catch the child should she fall.
A number of news outlets reported Manh "caught" the falling child, but that remains debatable.
It is difficult to determine in the blurry video below if the child made contact with Manh's body or with the metallic awning which was dented from the impact of the fall.
Manh maintained:
"Everything happened within a minute. I didn't understand how I could scale the roof that quickly. I couldn't believe I saved the girl's life."
He said the toddler was not crying but saw blood dripping from her mouth.
Still trembling while recalling the incident, the intrepid rescuer told the media:
"Luckily, the baby fell into my lap. I hurriedly embraced her then saw blood leaking from her mouth, I was very frightened."
"She looked so much like my child at home," he continued.
"I was so confused, only able to tell her, 'Please, please, I'm here now."
Manh was praised for his efforts to rescue the little girl.
The child was taken to the National Children's Hospital where doctors said she dislocated her hip but sustained no other injuries.
Le Ngoc Duy, a doctor at the hospital, said the child is in a cast and is being monitored.
After news of the story went viral with many people calling Manh a "hero," he dismissed the moniker.
"I don't see myself as a hero. I just want to do good."
Details about the child's family are unknown, nor how she got over the window railing, but Manh—who is a father of two—said he plans to visit the girl once she is discharged and is willing to adopt her, if she needs a home.
"I want to have as many children as possible," he said.
