Video: Asylum seeker jumps into icy canal to rescue woman from sinking car in Eindhoven
On a cold Friday morning in Eindhoven, with temperatures hovering around freezing, a 34-year-old asylum seeker of Eastern European origin jumped into a canal to save a woman whose car had plunged into the icy water.
The incident occurred around 10 a.m. when the woman was driving along Kanaaldijk-Zuid and her navigation system indicated a right turn. She missed the bridge and drove straight into the canal, Hart van Nederland reported.
Seeing the car sink, the man immediately jumped into the water and, using all his strength, dragged the vehicle to the opposite side of the canal. There, with the help of bystanders, he pulled the woman out and brought her safely to the bank.
Staff from a nearby hardware store assisted both the woman and her rescuer, and ambulance personnel examined them. The woman did not require hospitalization, but the rescuer needed time to recover from the ordeal, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) told Hart van Nederland.
Police later returned the man to the asylum seekers’ center where he resides, and a tow truck eventually removed the car from the canal.
