Elderly man's daring rescue of boy stuck in a canal

An elderly man won praise this week after rescuing a young boy who rode his sled right into a canal. Manno Buiter, 80, watched the events unfold from his house in Nieuwolda, Groningen, reports RTV Noord. The boy was sledding down an icy hill near the Termunterzijldiep deep canal, and headed straight towards the water. Buiter thought the boy could still jump from the sleigh, but he did not make it out in time. Buiter sprung from his living room chair with only house slippers on his feet and ran outside. He shouted to two small kids wanting to help the boy, telling them to back away, afraid they too would fall in the water. Holding onto a poll, he managed to pull the boy out of the canal while his wife, Dina Buiter, looked on. “I thought, this is not going well,” she told the broadcaster. The boy and his mother stopped by the Buiters’ home on Thursday to give Manno a bottle of Beerenburg, a genever based alcoholic spirit that he enjoys.