An Egyptian father is being hailed as “Super Dad” after saving his daughter from death under a moving train.
A video that has gone viral in Egypt shows the father shielding his daughter on the railway tracks as the train speeds off next to them.
“The girl was walking on the train tracks. Suddenly, the goods train sounded its siren, perplexing the girl who fell on the ground semi-unconscious,” Ala Ebrahim an eyewitness who was at the rail station of Ismailia city where the incident took place on Monday recounted.
“At that moment, her father decided to sacrifice himself to save her. He jumped down [from the platform] disregarding people’s shouts for him to come back because the train was coming nearer. We kept praying to God for their lives while fear almost stopped our hearts,” Ebrahim said.
“It was a terrible scene that left everyone standing on the station platform stunned,” said Ahmad Akef, another witness who recorded the incident on his cellphone.
So far, the father has not been identified but witnesses say he is in his 50s while his daughter is believed to be 13 or 14.
While social media continues to heap praises on the father, railway authorities in Egypt have, however, accused him of negligence.
Officials say that he and his daughter were supposed to use a pedestrian tunnel to cross to the other side of the station instead of crossing from the tracks.
Egypt has recorded some rail tragedies in the past. Last February, an unmanned speeding train crashed into a platform at Cairo’s main rail station, killing about 21 people.
In February 2018, 10 people were killed when two trains collided in northern Egypt.
