Chinese Woman's Guanghua Bridge Jump Attempt Thwarted By Officer Qiao Jinhai (VIDEO)

Beijing officer Qiao Jinhai foiled a potential tragedy last month when he saved a young woman and her baby from the edge of the city's Guanghua bridge. CCTV released footage of the harrowing scene captured by surveillance cameras.

Officer Jinhai rushed to the scene after commuters spotted the woman holding a young child climbing over the rails of the bridge, The Daily Mail reports. The officer managed to grab the desperate woman right as she appeared poised to jump into the water. She frantically clamped on to the edge of the bridge, while passersby rushed in and snatched the child from her arms.

According to the Telegraph, police said problems at home had motivated the woman to attempt the jump.

The Daily Mail reports that the woman was brought to a local police station for questioning.

Watch footage of the rescue effort above. WARNING: Images below may be disturbing to some.

Woman sits on the edge of the bridge:



Woman appears to begin to jump:



Police officer spots her:



Police officer grabs her:



More people rush to help:

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Comments

[nanaofmysky]

06:31 PM on 03/04/2012

Could have been a tragic ending. Good the officer came along. Something terrible must be going on in her life for her to want to jump. Hope she gets the help she needs. I know how she must feel, I've been there. ( not on the bridge ) So depressed and felt there was nothing to live for. But you know what, I had my sons to live for.Officer Jinhai did a great job. Hewas in the right place at the right time.

[lilbree688]

08:10 AM on 03/03/2012

And i am sure they will give her her kid back... Another poor child

[Atim-moot Tugayak]

10:56 AM on 03/02/2012

She deseves our sympathy and to anyone suffering out there, you are worth having around. Eternal sleep will one day come, until then we can only do the best we can.

[azrock4ever]

11:55 AM on 03/02/2012

Nice post. So true.

[bmedeirostci]

06:21 AM on 03/02/2012

Who sits and records while this is going on? Look how tightly she is holding the child and only "attempts" to jump when the officer is right next to her. She was never going to jump and the kid was never in danger.

[RDX]

01:25 PM on 03/02/2012

Glad you're such an expert after looking at a few grainy still images.

[bmedeirostci]

01:58 PM on 03/02/2012

You lollipop -- I watched the video.

[pug ster]

03:52 PM on 03/02/2012

It is probably a traffic cam. If you look at the video, it is cropped.

[cowboyson1]

06:06 AM on 03/02/2012

These stories depress people to the point of suicide for themselves.

[azrock4ever]

12:01 PM on 03/02/2012

The horrible Huffington Post writers do that for me.

[MotorCityMama77]

06:02 AM on 03/02/2012

Must have been a some bad egg foo yung.

[Ron Menge]

01:28 PM on 03/02/2012

Egg foo young is American food. You can never see it in China.

[MotorCityMama77]

02:32 PM on 03/02/2012

Chop suey either. You have no sense of humor.

[Ty Pekarik]

05:46 AM on 03/02/2012

Surely someone could have dubbed in the news report . Not only did I not understand a word, the accompanying story explained nothing.

[theatlantean1]

05:44 AM on 03/02/2012

Man, poor little kid.......It's one thing if you want to end your own life, but don't take someone else with you!! I can't stand a lot of things about this world, and I've really grown to not like people (for the most part), BUT I do know that tomorrow could be a better day (as I believe in miracles), and I do believe that there is still a smugeon of good left in a few people, so that give me some hope. However, no matter how bad things get, I couldn't imagine taking someone with me if I decided it was time to exit this realm.

[LICWINKO]

05:42 AM on 03/02/2012

I know little of the Chinese culture but i do know a few Chinese people and it seems when they don't get there way - they want to "off" themselves, like a few months ago when Chinese were protesting that factory and threatened to jump off the building - i also know a Chinese woman that killed herself because her husband wanted a divorce, she had 2 teenage daughters - seems like they are pretty selfish - not saying all of them are but it seems like the majority

[Ron Menge]

01:30 PM on 03/02/2012

In Chinese society, it is very hard to change your life.

[mrc1006]

05:38 AM on 03/02/2012

Unfortunately, this woman may make another - perhaps successful - attempt again. The child needs protection from its mother who, herself, needs help. Sad that there are so many desperate people in this world.

[Halescha]

05:22 AM on 03/02/2012

I don't know why people get so inflamed about someone else's life (or their decision to end it) when we know absolutely nothing about their lives, personalities, background, all of it. Unless we can slip inside someone's soul, we don't have a clue.

[Victoria Institutions]

05:16 AM on 03/02/2012

Chinese language could be quite feudal. There would be desperation behind the all the sheen!

[thahardtruth]

04:49 AM on 03/02/2012

How selfish and self serving for a parent to CHOOSE to end their life, leaving a child to agonize over how insignificant their parents love for them must have been. CHOOSING to take a helpless child with them is nothing short of murder. Wonder what this baby will think of their mother when they see this video in the future.

[Altemeus]

05:55 AM on 03/02/2012

That is a matter of perspective. If you are a person who has reached adulthood and find yourself pushed down at every turn to the point that you feel like you must end your own life, would you leave a much less prepared child to suffer the indignities you couldn't handle yourself? My guess is that she thought she was doin' the kid a favor.

Selfish is the last thing that comes to mind when I think of suicide. Much of a person's trauma when dealing with suicidal thoughts concluding that the people around them would be better off without that person. Selfish is definitely not the word.

[Altemeus]

06:34 AM on 03/02/2012

Selfish is not the word for it. An adult mother is pushed down by society to the point that she feels death would be less painful, and yet she is going to leave a defenseless child to face what she could not. The mother might have thought she was doing her kid a favor.

Not that it matters. Selfish is far from the issue. One common hurdle that suicidal people tend to take on is that of measuring your worth in society and whether others would be better off without you around. Selfish is so far from accurate.

[Travis Barton]

01:41 AM on 03/04/2012

That still never gave her the right to consider taking her child's life with her own. NOTHING excuses that.

[cyndinca]

04:34 AM on 03/02/2012

I'm surprised anyone came to her rescue.
The last story I read about China was about a little girl who was run over by a truck (which never stopped) & all the people walking, biking & driving around her as she lay dying in the street.
They don't think much of female children in China.

[crazytammy]

05:30 AM on 03/02/2012

They saved her because the child was a boy. Had she had a daughter in her hands, no one would have cared.

[Melissa Vo]

06:13 AM on 03/02/2012

This is an ignorant comment. It's a big country; not all areas within it are the same. The incident in which the girl was run over and ignored occurred in a more rural area where, like you said, female children still are neglected. Those cowards were afraid of being blamed for the accident if they tried to help, as it had happened several times before. It was strongly encouraged that people not involve themselves as to avoid being sued or prosecuted. People in the more urban parts of China care about other citizens in need just as much as you and I do; e.g. Beijing, where this bridge story was based--the child rescued by a passerby. It's wrong to assume that all Chinese people are still primitive and uncompassionate. That kind of thinking is similar to how other industrialized nations see us, Americans, as a general people: a bunch of materialistic fatties.

[cyndinca]

11:12 PM on 03/03/2012

I didn't mean to suggest that such atrocities only occur in China. They happen here in America too. This in NY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJpQyyfBZUY
& there are many other stories like this.

However, it's no secret that female children are not highly regarded in Chinese society due to over-population, childbirth gender restriction laws, status & economic reasons. I don't think I'm making that up as there have been countless articles published on the subject. Here are 4 for starters.

http://www.economist.com/node/15636231
http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/c-wnhol.html
http://www.taliacarner.com/deadnewborningutter.html
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/chinas_lost_girls

Nor is China the only country where males fare better than females. India is another.

[Minnielee]

04:23 AM on 03/02/2012

I can't even begin to know what stress she must have to want kill herself and her child. Some people are stronger than others and can cope better but it's wrong to judge them until we have walked in their shoes. I am so glad the officer was able to save her and I am hoping that she gets the help she needs to want to live again.

[greysells2]

08:10 AM on 03/02/2012

And thanks to all the others helped the police as well.