Railway worker saves 6-year-old boy from oncoming train in dramatic rescue in India

MUMBAI: India's Ministry of Railways has rewarded a railway worker with 50,000 rupees (US$660) on Tuesday (Apr 20) for rescuing a six-year-old boy from the path of an oncoming train. 

Railway worker Mayur Shelke has been hailed a "superhero" after CCTV footage of the incredible rescue went viral on social media, with many lauding the selfless 30-year-old. 

In a letter posted on its Twitter account, the railway ministry said Shelke "displayed exceptional courage" by sprinting about 30m towards an oncoming train and lifting the child safety onto the platform. 

The boy was with his partially sighted mother on Saturday at Vangani station - about 70km east of Mumbai - when he fell off the platform onto the train tracks.

Shelke was alerted by the mother's cries for help and immediately started running along the track.

In images released by Indian Central Railways, Shelke is seen grabbing the boy, throwing him back onto the platform and then climbing up himself, barely two seconds before the Udyan Express thundered through.

"I saw the kid falling and the train speeding towards him. There was no chance he would have lived had I not intervened," Shelke was quoted as saying by the Mid-Day newspaper.

He said he had been scared of the looming train, but added: "There was no time to think at all, I was determined to save him."

Fatal accidents are common on India's vast, but often dilapidated railway network.

Social media users called Shelke, whose job as a pointsman is to check the train signals, a "superhero".

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said Shelke had "motivated humanity with his work".