A railroad station worker in India is being praised for his heroism after he saved a child who fell onto the tracks from being hit by an oncoming train.
Mayur Shelke, a railway pointsman at the Vangani Station of Central Railway, saw a boy walking along the station's platform with his mother — who, according to India's The Free Press Journal, is visually impaired — on Saturday afternoon.
In dramatic videos of the event tweeted by India's Ministry of Railways, the boy is seen accidentally stumbling and then falling several feet down onto the tracks as a passenger train barrels toward the station at breakneck speed.
Shelke can be seen running toward the boy on the tracks as his mother tries frantically to reach down to him.
"I was waiting to send a signal to the Udyan Express which was going towards Mumbai. I saw the visually challenged woman and his son on the platform walking towards Karjat side. Suddenly the boy came at the corner of the platform and fell off on track. I was 60 meters away from them and saw a train coming in speed," Shelke told the The Free Press Journal.
Realizing there was no time to stop the passenger train, Shelke made the decision to save the boy "at any cost" — even if it meant risking his own life.
"I ran towards him and put him on the platform. But I was scared in the middle as the train was near me, but with all courage I jumped up," he recalled, adding, "I couldn't even realize that I had saved someone. I was just blank for almost 15 to 20 minutes.
"Later everyone started appreciating me so felt I had done something good," he shared.
Shelke received a standing ovation from his colleagues at the Mumbai Division of Central Railway.
He was also saluted for his "exemplary courage & utmost devotion to the duty" by the Ministry of Railways, which gave him a reward of 50,000 rupees, or roughly $660.
While speaking to The Free Press Journal, Shelke said his heroism was simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
"I think everything happened for a reason and I was present to save him," he said.
Related: