A viral video shows the moment when two London women rescue a child from being abducted.
The video, which has been shared widely on social media, begins after the women saw a man walking with a young girl. The man reportedly approached the girl from behind before forcing her into a side alley. He appeared to have his hand over the girl’s mouth, which prompted the women to follow him, BBC News reports.
A brief video of the rescue shot to the top of the r/PublicFreakout subreddit on Tuesday. The first portion of the video shows the women making their way into an alley and after the man. As they round a corner, the man can be seen near the end of the alley with the girl partially hidden. When the woman filming calls out to ask what is going on, he tells her the girl is his sister. He fails to convince the women, though, and they continue following.
As soon as the women make their way toward the duo, the man pushes the child in front of him and begins walking away. He again asserts that the child is his “family” and urges the women to let it be. They do not, following the man and girl as they make their way out of the alley and into a parking lot.
Here, the women begin calling out to the girl. They ask if she is OK, repeatedly trying to get her attention. In the daylight, one of the man’s hands can be seen on the back of the girl’s neck. Both the girl and her kidnapper have their hoods up, obscuring their faces.
When the woman filming gets close enough to nearly reveal faces, the man attempts one last time to urge her away. But she is undeterred. She asks the girl if she is alright, and the man runs from the scene.
In the final moments of the video, the woman reaches the girl. Sobbing, the girl tells the woman she doesn’t know the fleeing man. She informs the woman that he grabbed her on her way to school and attempted to coerce her into performing sexual acts on him.
The woman filming never managed to get a clear shot of the abductor, but her video proved immensely helpful to police as they began the search. Metropolitan Police used a side shot of his profile and footage taken from other angles to identify a suspect.
Mere hours after the incident, Met Police released a photo of a man suspected to be the attempted kidnapper: 26-year-old Kadian Nelson. The release of his photo sparked a firestorm online, and locals began gathering to join the hunt for Nelson. Video shared on Twitter shows several people waiting for Nelson outside his flat.
Met Police urged civilians to “go home.”
“Do not try to take the law into your own hands or you may end up doing something you regret and potentially face police action yourself,” Detective Superintendent Owain Richards said.
Reports say the attack occurred around 07:00 GMT in Southwest London. Civilians were successful in tracking down Nelson, but police intervened before any violence arose, according to BBC. Following a call from a member of the public, police tracked Nelson to his home. He is currently in police custody.
Following his capture, police lauded the courage of the woman who filmed the video. “The extraordinary bravery of a lady who followed and filmed them has almost certainly saved the victim from even further distress,” McDonagh said.
Metropolitan Police did not respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment.
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