[Yonhap Photo / KORAIL]
A railway station employee saved an 86-year-old man who was waiting for his death by lying down on a railroad just before a train arrived.
The employee identified by his surname Seok, 43, detected a man lying on the railroad at Samnangjin, 295 kilometers (183 miles) southeast of Seoul while checking the real-time CCTV footage of his station's platform at 10:58 pm (1358 GMT) Monday.
Seven minutes before a train arrived in the platform, Seok rushed down to help but the old man strongly insisted on staying on the railroad to meet his death. With colleagues contacting the incoming train to slow down and prepare for an emergency stop, Seok did not hesitate to lift the old man onto the platform one minute and nine seconds ahead of the train's arrival.
According to police, the old man was traveling by train and got off Samnangjin to commit suicide. KORAIL, the national railroad operator, said Kim could have died without Seok's help because there were no other passengers on the platform at the time.
Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
