BHOPAL: In an act of tremendous courage a 37-year-old man jumped in front of a moving goods train to save a woman who had fallen on the railway track in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal, an official said on Saturday.
While the incident took place on February 5, a video of the occurrence went viral on social media on Friday, garnering praise from all quarters.
The incident took place in Barkhedi around 8 pm on February 5, when Mohammed Mehboob, a carpenter, was walking near the scene after offering namaz.
A woman in her 20s carrying a backpack was crossing the railway track at the time when a goods train started approaching, said Shoaib Hashmi, a friend of Mehboob told PTI on Saturday.
The woman got scared and tripped on the tracks and could not get up and move away from the train's path, he said.
When onlookers started shouting in panic, Mehboob acted on impulse and jumped on the track and ran up to the woman, dragged her to the middle of the trackbed and kept her from lifting her head as the train passed over them, Hashmi said.
People kept cautioning the duo to stay down till at least 28 wagons on the train passed over them, he added.
After the near-death experience, the woman broke down in tears and hugged her father and brother who had not crossed the railway track with her at the time, Hashmi said.
In a video of the incident, Mehboob can be seen holding the woman's head down to prevent it from hitting anything protruding from the undercarriage.
Ever since the video went viral on social media, people have been flocking Mehboob's home in Ashok Vihar Bank Colony, Aishbag to congratulate him.