On the evening of March 1st, people shared a clearer angle clip showing Nguyễn Ngọc Mạnh (31 years old, Đông Anh, Hanoi) trying to save a 3-year-old child falling from the 12th floor of an apartment building.
In the clip, Mạnh climbed onto the roof, still looking up towards the child’s balcony. The slippery roof caused him to slip and fall, but he managed to get back up and look up. The child fell at a high speed; Mạnh tried to reach out to catch the child, but the force of the fall was too strong, causing the child to land on his arm, crash into the roof, and then bounce up. Mạnh rushed towards the child, hugged him, and then tried to bring him down safely.
On his personal Facebook, Mạnh also shared this video with the message: “This is a video I just received. Through the video, everyone can see that I couldn’t completely catch the child; the incident happened too suddenly, and I can’t remember all the details. I sincerely hope everyone understands”
The online community expressed gratitude for Mạnh’s actions. Many believe that his arm helped reduce the impact and protect the child’s life. Fortunately, the child only suffered a hip dislocation and no brain injury.
“The most important thing is that the child is safe! A person climbed like that to save the child; whether able to catch him fully or just partially, the main goal was the child’s life.”
“Watching the clip shows that he was very brave, climbing and then standing underneath to catch the child at the right position. He just slipped and couldn’t fully catch the child, but when the child fell, his hands were already down to protect…”.
“I watched it over and over and concluded that the slip prevented him from fully catching the child, but he tried very hard, stretching out to help the child from falling to the ground.”
“The weight of a child falling from the 12th floor will increase many times… Without Mạnh’s arm, the consequences would have been unimaginable.”
“The most regretful thing is that I couldn’t hug the child while falling; I could only brace the child’s head with my hand”
Reflecting on this moment, he recounted that on the afternoon of February 28th, while sitting on a truck, he heard a child’s cries, thinking it was a family or someone scolding the children. A moment later, he heard a woman screaming loudly, and several people around were shouting, so he rushed out of the truck. Following the momentum, he opened the door and looked up, seeing the child dangling on the railing of the apartment.
The two buildings were separated by a wall; Mạnh jumped off the wall, leaped across, identified the roof direction where the child was falling, and quickly positioned himself to ensure the child’s safety.
Before catching the child, he stepped back about 1 meter to see the child more clearly. While trying to maintain his balance on the slippery roof, he heard the loud scream and reached out just as the child was falling into his hands.
“The roof was very slippery at that moment; I was trying to maintain my balance when I heard the loud scream. Just as I reached out, the child fell into my hands. Both of us fell and hit the roof. But my hands didn’t have enough force; at that moment, I also had to rely on the roof for both of us to be safe”, Mạnh recalled. He mentioned that when Mạnh rushed toward the child, the child happened to continue falling down.
“At that moment, my hands couldn’t provide enough force; I could only partially catch him, and then the child’s body fell onto my hands. I tried my best to block some of the force, preventing him from bouncing out again and falling to the ground. When I managed to stand up, I hugged him tightly and brought him down for emergency care.”
“I still regret it until now. The most regretful thing is that I couldn’t hug the child while falling; I could only brace the child’s head with my hand. I should have reacted faster and better, then the child wouldn’t have been injured,” Mạnh said.