Eye-witness and original tweeter Michelle Johnson got in touch with us today to kindly give JOE her side of the story. See below for details…
It seems that two football fans from differing sides came together to do something great today.
Arsenal and Cardiff might be meeting this afternoon in the Premier League, but before the match two of their fans already came face to face when they stepped in to do something pretty great.
Two fans spotted that a toddler had fallen under a train carriage at the Gospel Oak train station in the Camden area of London, and jumped in to make sure that the child was unscathed.
Two heroic Cardiff & Arsenal fans just pulled a toddler from under our train carriage at Gospel Oak #everydayheroes
— Michelle Johnson (@chelleajohnson) 1 janeiro 2014
Not many details are available at the moment about exactly what happened or how it came to pass, but it was certainly a selfless action by the two lads.
UPDATE: Michelle Johnson got in touch with JOE earlier today and kindly provided us with her eye-witness account of what actually happened…
I was in the front carriage of a train heading towards Highbury. Between the match and the New Year the atmosphere was very jovial on the train, and two small groups of Arsenal and Cardiff fans were enjoying a bit of banter between themselves.
We pulled up at Gospel Oak station where a woman began to manoeuvre a buggy from the platform onto the train. It seems the front wheels of the buggy got caught in the gap between train and platform, and as the mother tried to get control her toddler slipped through the gap and onto the tracks beneath the train.
Understandably there was panic from those by the door and the rest of the passengers all stood to help – immediately hitting emergency stop buttons and alerting the driver – while closer to the doors the fans from both teams rushed over, I believe to try and hold the doors open. I saw fans reaching down the gap, where a Cardiff supporter managed to pull the child up.
Mother and child were obviously distressed but the toddler seemed unhurt, thank goodness, and his mother immediately took him back to the station to get further help. It was a terrifying near-miss, but the train’s passengers acted incredibly quickly and the ‘rival’ fans were definitely the heroes of the hour.
Best wishes,
Michelle
An incredible story and one that thankfully has a happy ending for all involved… apart from the Cardiff City supporters of course, who were unfortunately on the receiving end of a 2-0 defeat to league leaders Arsenal.
Hat-tip to Arsenal.com for the pic and thanks again to Michelle Johnson for getting in touch.
