Hero boy, 10, saves mum's life after pulling her from sinking car
A 10-year-old boy has been praised for saving his mum’s life after pulling her out of a sinking car.
Maria Petrushenko, 38, says she was in a “stupor” after her Mazda Familia veered off the road into a deep, murky lake in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region.
“The road is narrow…I pressed closer to the left edge, but the car skidded,” Maria said.
“I don't remember what I did, everything happened so quickly, and we ended up in the water.”
The front doors were locked and she said she couldn’t see how to escape from the driver's seat.
“Then I heard my son’s voice shouting: ‘mum, mum…’” she said.
Her quick-thinking son Konstantin opened a rear passenger seat door then hauled his mum to the back and out.
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The pair managed to swim to the shore but then had to walk more than three kilometres to the nearest village for help.
The pair tried to flag down motorists as they walked dripping wet - but no-one stopped to help.
Emergency services said the vehicle quickly sank to the bottom of the lake - a depth of about five meters.
Maria said nobody had taught her son how to swim.
“He has never been in situations like this. Maybe they did something at school, I don't know,” she said.
Konstantin is expected to be awarded for his bravery.
"It was instinctive, I just saved my mother," Konstantin said.
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