On the evening of March 1st, a clearer video circulated online showing Nguyen Ngoc Manh, 31, from Dong Anh, Hanoi, risking everything to save a 3-year-old child falling from the 12th floor of an apartment building.
In the clip, Manh climbs onto a slippery metal roof, keeping his eyes fixed on the child’s balcony. Despite slipping and falling, he quickly gets back up and looks up again. As the child falls at high speed, Manh reaches out to catch him. The impact is so strong the child lands on Manh’s hands, then hits the roof and bounces up. Manh lunges forward, grabs the child, and carefully moves him down to safety.
On his personal Facebook, Manh shared the video with a message: “This is a video I just received. From it, you can see I didn’t fully catch the child. The incident happened so suddenly, I can’t remember all the details clearly. I sincerely ask for everyone’s understanding.”
The online community expressed deep gratitude for Manh’s heroic act. Many said his hands helped absorb the impact, protecting the child’s life. Fortunately, the child only suffered a hip dislocation and no brain injury.
“The most important thing is the child is safe! Someone climbing like that to save a kid, whether they caught the whole child or just part of him, the main goal was saving his life.”
“Watching the clip, you can see how brave he was, climbing and waiting below in the exact spot. He slipped, so he couldn’t catch the child fully, but when the child fell into his hands, he also braced himself against the roof…”
“Watching it over and over, it’s clear the slip stopped him from catching the whole child, but he tried so hard, stretching out to keep the child from falling to the ground.”
“The weight of a child falling from the 12th floor multiplies so much… Without Manh’s arms, the outcome would have been much worse.”
“My biggest regret is not being able to hold the child fully as he fell, only catching his head with my hands”
Sharing the moment, Manh said that on the afternoon of February 28th, while sitting in a delivery truck, he heard a child crying and thought someone was scolding the kids. Then he heard a woman scream loudly and people shouting around, so he quickly got out of the truck. Looking up, he saw the child hanging from the apartment balcony.
The two buildings are separated by a wall. Manh climbed and jumped across, quickly spotting the metal roof where the child would fall, and positioned himself to keep the child safe.
Before catching the child, he stepped back about a meter to get a clear view. While trying to balance on the slippery roof, he heard a terrified scream and just managed to reach out as the child fell into his hands.
“The metal roof was very slippery. I tried to keep my balance, then heard a terrified scream. As I reached out, the child fell into my hands. We both hit the roof. My hands didn’t have enough strength, it was the roof that helped keep us safe,” Manh recalled. He said as he rushed toward the child, the child kept falling downward.
“My hands couldn’t fully support the child. I only caught part of him, then his body landed on my hands. I tried to absorb some of the impact and stop him from bouncing off and falling to the ground again. When I got up, I held him tightly and took him down for emergency care.”
“I still feel regret. The biggest regret is not being able to hold the child fully as he fell, only catching his head with my hands. If I had reacted faster, the child might not have been injured,” Manh said.
