On the afternoon of April 5, Nguyen Nam Phong, aged 3, was playing with a five-year-old boy in the garden of his home in Nghi Dien Commune, Nghi Loc District. Moments later, the older child accidentally slipped into a pit approximately one metre deep, partially filled with water. The pit was located next to the foundation of a neighbour's house under construction.
Without hesitation, Phong ran into the house where his mother was chatting with friends on the porch. Hitting her arm to get attention, the toddler exclaimed in broken speech, "Mum, help!", before pointing toward the garden and dashing off in that direction.
Realising something was wrong, the adults immediately followed Phong to the site, roughly 15 metres from the house, where they found the five-year-old flailing in the pit. They quickly pulled him to safety.
Footage from a home security camera capturing Phong’s dash for help was later shared on social media, where it quickly went viral, attracting hundreds of thousands of views and comments. Viewers praised the child’s alertness and composure in a crisis.
Nguyen Van Thanh, 41, said the five-year-old boy was the son of a friend who had visited their home that afternoon. “We’re very lucky that no serious incident occurred,” he said.
Thanh explained that his family had five children, and that Phong is their adopted son. The boy was abandoned at their gate three years ago when he was just a few weeks old, with a note asking for someone to take care of him. Thanh and his wife decided to adopt him and named him Nam Phong.
A file photo of Nam Phong
“He’s a bright, quick and intuitive child. Watching the camera footage, I was truly surprised by how he responded to save his friend,” Thanh said.