Video: Omani hailed as hero after he saves two children from drowning in flash floods
Al Wardi becomes the talk of the town after risking his life to save the duo
Dubai: An Omani has become the talk of the town after he risked his life to save two children from drowning in flash floods in Wadi Bahla on Friday.
A video of the incident has gone viral on social media showing the brave man saving the two children. Minutes earlier, Ali bin Nasser Al Wardi was sitting with his father in his house talking about the rains.
He even asked his father to come out with him and enjoy the scenic beauty of Wadi Bahla at the very beginning of the autumn.
When they eventually stepped out their house, what the father-son duo saw was chilling: Two children helplessly crying for help in the fast-flowing wadi.
The two children stuck to rickety pieces of palm tree trunks in the fiercely flowing wadi. “So I took off my dishdasha, and my father tied the rope around my waist, one end of which he was tightly holding.”
Al Wardi said he was only thinking of saving the children death and was fervently praying to God to help him save them. “I was resisting the force of the flow and shouting out to the children at the top of my voice asking them not to panic and look around them for anything stable: either a pillar or a tree to hold on to, but to no avail. I somehow reached them and as soon as I touched them, tears began rolling out of their eyes. I hugged them, comforted them asking them all the while not to worry. I will carry you out of the valley, but the younger child, perhaps unsure about my assurances blurted out: “I don’t want to drown and die, please save me.”
Al Wardi says: “I thank God for having enabled me to save the two children (13 years and 7 years)."”
Al Hajar Mountains and other governorates and wilayats of the Sultanate received heavy rains as wadis brimmed with fast-flowing current of the water.