Video of 17-Year-Old Catching Child Falling From Apartment Building Goes Viral

An Algerian teenager prevented a tragedy when he saved a 2-year-old falling from an apartment  building in Turkey.

Fawzi Zabaat, 17, said he noticed a small child playing near an open window from the second floor of an apartment building in Istanbul, reported the Saudi Gazette.

“I was just walking in the road when I saw the little girl at the window. She fell, and thanks to God, I caught her before she hit the ground,” said Zabaat, according to AFP.

The toddler was identified by AFP as a Syrian girl, Doha Muhammed. Her mother was busy cooking when the girl fell out the window.

Surveillance video captured the moment Zabaat, wearing a yellow t-shirt and jean shorts,  walks toward the building and looks up at the child as two other men stand nearby but unaware of the dangerous situation. The video shows Zabaat holding his arms up and catching the girl just before she hits the ground.

Eyewitness Izzet Bayir told Demiroren News Agency (DHA) he noticed the child was in danger because Zabaat had been looking up. “I was walking from the top of the street toward the bottom. I saw this man looking up, it caught my attention,” Bayir told DHA, according to ABC News.

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“And I saw that this little girl was about to fall. And this lion of a person caught this child in mid-air and reunited her with her family.”

Viral video shows lucky catch of falling toddler in Istanbul https://t.co/juyzAo92d5 pic.twitter.com/of8HDpogbh

— The Straits Times (@STcom) June 27, 2019

Online, people said they were shocked and appreciative for the teen’s quick actions.

“Well Done is Excellence. Best Wishes to him for save the child life,” one man said on Facebook.

“It’s a dangerous act But good that both are well,” another person wrote on the social media site.

Similar Case

In a similar story, surveillance video in Colombia captured the moment a woman saved her young child from falling off a balcony just in time.

The footage shows the mother and son waiting inside a building in Medellín when the young boy quickly wanders toward the balcony, reported El Espectador. The boy is seen squatting, stumbling forward, and dropping to his knees before falling head-first down the balcony.

I wouldn’t say mom of the year. She was busy on her phone and by the grace of god reacted in time.

— RicklePick (@WVUBeyer182) June 24, 2019

The mother then looks up from her phone—after having taken her eyes off the child only momentarily—and lunges forward, grabbing the boy’s leg and pulling him back up.

What a CATCH. Mom of the year. https://t.co/kesqmacIK4

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) June 24, 2019

As the mother begins pulling the child back to safety, three women—said to be employees of Monserrate—are seen rushing to help while another man runs downstairs, presumably under the assumption that the child may have fallen.

OMG!!! Watch as this mom saves her child from falling off a balcony!! Half a second later and it would have been too late! https://t.co/XSGgYny9oD

— 99.1 KGGI (@991KGGI) June 21, 2019

It is not clear if the child suffered any injuries.