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KUALA LUMPUR: A Chinese mother’s bravery and quick-wittedness helped save her two young children from a fiery death.
Unfortunately, her children’s rescue came at a cost to her own life.
According to the New York Post, a fire broke out on the fifth floor of an apartment building in Xuchang, Henan province in China on Friday, trapping a woman and her 3-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son.
In a video clip which has gone viral on social media, thick smoke is seen streaming out of the family’s apartment windows as a crowd of onlookers watches tensely from the ground.
The mother begins tossing blankets and bedsheets out of a window, which a number of men in the crowd instantly grab to form a makeshift cushion for the family to land on were they to jump.
The desperate mother then places her son on the window ledge, before dropping him to the ground. Bystanders scream as the boy falls – but he lands safely in the bedsheets.
Assured that her son is safe, the woman then dangles her toddler daughter out the window, with encouragement from the crowd. She lets go of the girl, who also lands safely.
The footage cuts to firefighters arriving on the scene to rescue the woman, who is believed to have lost consciousness immediately after saving her children.
The courageous mother was rushed to hospital with her two children – but the New York Post reports that she was pronounced dead after succumbing to smoke inhalation.