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A young man is hailed as a hero after rescuing a woman and her one-year-old twin daughters trapped in their car from flooding in Rio de Janeiro.
Marcos de Souza, 29, was on a bus heading home when the driver diverted due to heavy rain in the city of Nova Iguaçu on Wednesday night and suddenly heard people from a gym he passed shouting. that a car with people inside was being swept away by flood waters.
That’s when De Souza sprang into action, after the bus stopped next to the car in danger as it approached.
Dramatic footage showed De Souza placing his leg over the left rear tire and grabbing Brenda and Beatriz Mendes and passing them to one of the bus passengers.
“I didn’t even think twice, I just acted,” he told Brazilian media outlet G1. “The car was approaching and I managed to stomp my feet and help the woman and her two daughters.”
Marcos de Souza hands over one of the two one-year-old twin sisters that he rescued with his mother on Wednesday night after being trapped in his family’s car on a flooded street in Rio de Janeiro.
Marcos de Souza (right) met with Jorge Mendes and Berlandia Mendes on Thursday, a day after he saved her and her twin daughters from being swept away by a flood in Rio de Janeiro after she and her children were trapped inside the family car.
In the video you can see De Souza handing out backpacks containing the family’s belongings.
He approached Berlandia Mendes and told her to “take my hand” before helping her onto the bus.
Mendes’ car was swept through the streets moments after she entered the bus.
“I was thinking for a long time that in a matter of seconds no tragedy occurred,” de Souza said. ‘She thanked me a lot, she said she had no words for what I did, that I saved her life. I told her she just did what needed to be done.’
The bus De Souza was traveling on suffered a mechanical failure due to the flooding and the passengers had to wait for the arrival of another bus to continue their trip.
Berlandia Mendes and her one-year-old twin daughters were rescued on Wednesday by a bus passenger who was trapped in the family vehicle while waters flooded a street in Rio de Janeiro.
De Souza chose to walk home in the rain and found her house and her aunts’ house, which is next to hers, partially flooded with severe damage to furniture and appliances.
His life-changing actions did not go unnoticed and donations poured into a crowdfunding account to help him and his family.
Mendes and her husband, Jorge Mendes, met with De Souza on Thursday and thanked him for rescuing her and the children.
“This is my angel, who saved my life,” Mendes said. ‘God sent him to save my life and that of my daughters.’
The storm claimed the lives of three residents in the Rio de Janeiro region, including two people after their house in the town of Japeri collapsed.
