Video: Incredible moment man jumps onto train track to save stranger

A man in Philadelphia was hailed a hero after he jumped onto subway tracks to help a passenger who fell off a platform.

Christopher Knafelc, 32, was waiting for a train in north Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon when he saw the 63-year-old man walk off the platform and fall onto the tracks.

The Huffington Post reports that he jumped down to help the man, even though he knew a train would be arriving in a few minutes.

Good Samaritan Christopher said he wasn't thinking about the dangers of being just a few feet away from a live track and just had the victim in mind.

"Out of corner of my eye I saw a body flail onto the tracks," Knafelc told CBS Philadelphia. "I really couldn't see very well from where I was sitting. I approached him, I could tell he was in pain.

"I jumped down, I knew I had about five to ten minutes until another train," he said.

"I told the guy in booth to suspend southbound trains. I already had a plan in mind if a train came to roll underneath."

Train traffic was halted and he held the man's head and neck stable until firefighters arrived to lift him off the tracks.

Investigators are still trying to establish why the victim stumbled onto the tracks.

The 63-year-old was taken to a local hospital with pain.

When asked if he would do it again, Christopher responded "Absolutely".

Watch the CBC Philadelphia report with CCTV footage of the incident:




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