This is the astonishing moment a group of men rescued a child trapped in a sinking taxi before it plunged into icy waters.
Three men in Dagestan, Russia, have been praised for their heroic efforts after pulling a young boy to safety from a taxi that had veered off the road and into a fast-flowing canal.
To save the child, they precariously hanged over a metal pipe across the October Revolution Canal in the city of Makhachkala, footage from the incident reveals.
They lifted the young boy from an open window of the partly submerged vehicle as it floated downstream, preventing him from falling into the cold waters.
One of the men stripped down to his underwear, despite freezing temperatures.
The child was hoisted up and passed along by the three men towards the canal bank, returning safely to shore.
Eyewitnesses said the boy’s mother and the taxi driver, who were still trapped in the car, were later saved after rescuers entered the water with a rope to help them, Russian news site Izvestia reported.
Taxi driver, Nurislam Ramazanov, told the outlet he had lost control of the car after it skidded when he attempted to avoid a parked car obstructing the road.
He added he was taking the mother and her child to the hospital when the incident happened, in which his brake stopped working.
Nurislam described the incident and explained how the boy remained unscathed thanks to the rescuers.
He said: ‘The child went out the window first. The guys caught him. The child, one might say, did not get wet because there was no water in the cabin. The baby was dry.’
One of the rescuers was named as Assadulla Magomedov, who previously trained at an MMA school in Makhachkala, which is named after the famous MMA coach, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov.
Witnesses who saw the rescue mission have praised the three men for their quick-thinking amid a stressful situation.
Some referred to the incident as ‘an ordinary day for Dagestan’, which is known for its strong community ties.
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