A Dagestani wrestling coach is being lauded as a hero after assisting in the rescue of six people from a burning car in Moscow.
Arslanbek Aliyev happened to be walking by to visit his friends when he saw a Mercedes hit the rear of a taxi at high speed, sending it off course and into the wall of a nearby building on Zubovsky Boulevard. The Mercedes burst into flames moments after colliding with the wall, which led to Aliyev run to the scene to help the victims.
“We ran out at the sound of fire, immediately the car began to burn,” Aliyev later explained.
The accident was captured on CCTV footage, which has since gone viral on alternative social media platforms like Telegram.
According to Aliyev, a former winner of the Russian freestyle wrestling championships and the head coach of Dagestan’s youth wrestling team, law enforcement officers that arrived on scene attempted to stop from him from providing assistance but he still managed to break the car’s window and help people out of the wreck with the help of other bystanders.
“The police forbade us to approach,” he explained. “We broke the windows, doors with Arab guys. They were the first to start it all. And they pulled all the guys out. The front ones, who were squeezed, could not (pull out), there was a very strong fire.”
Officials later confirmed that the driver and the front-seat passenger had died in the accident, though the rest of the occupants were being treated in hospital.
Members of Russia’s State Duma (lower parliament) have promised to award Aliyev for his bravery. “Such actions should not go unnoticed,” noted Dmitry Svishchev, head of the Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports.
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