Superhero Citizen Catches Toddler Falling From 12th Story Highrise

A “superhero” delivery driver in Hanoi has saved a two-year-old girl who fell from a 12th-floor balcony.

Nguyen Ngoc Manh, 31, was sitting in his car waiting to make a delivery at 5pm on Sunday when he heard a child crying, he told the Anninhthudo news organisation. A woman started screaming and he stuck his head out of the window to see what was going on.

He told local media in the Vietnam capital that he first thought it was a child having a tantrum, but quickly realised it was something else. The child was nearly 50 meters above ground.

In a video of the incident taken from a nearby apartment building, the child can be seen climbing over the balcony railing and on to a thin ledge. Neighbours in a building opposite can be heard crying out to her. The child holds on for a few moments before losing her grip and falling.

“Luckily, the baby fell into my lap,” Nguyen said. “I hurriedly embraced her then saw blood leaking from her mouth, I was very frightened.”

The child was taken to the National Children’s Hospital where doctors told local media she had dislocated her hip but suffered no other injuries. Le Ngoc Duy, a doctor at the hospital, said she was in a cast and being monitored.