A teacher at a local school in Huai'an, East China's Jiangsu Province, won widespread admiration on the internet after a video circulated of him putting his own life at risk to save a boy who had fallen off a balcony on the sixth floor. Photo: screenshot of Pear Video on Sina Weibo.

A teacher at a local school in Huai'an, East China's Jiangsu Province, won widespread admiration on the internet after a video circulated of him putting his own life at risk to save a boy who had fallen off a balcony on the sixth floor.

The 12-year-old boy from Huai'an had been left alone in the apartment and gone to the balcony to bring in some basked quilts, when he slipped and fell off, and was left hanging upside down from a clothes-hanger outside the building.

He was soon noticed by a downstairs neighbor, surnamed Hou, who immediately ran to the same spot on the floor below. Hou grabbed the frame of the window with one hand, and hung his body out of the window to hold the boy for nearly 20 minutes until firemen arrived. 

Hou later told media that he is a teacher at a local foreign language school. "My hands became totally numb after holding the boy for so long with only one arm, but knowing I was holding a life in my hand, I never gave up," he said.

Global Times