A drunk who tumbled into the path of an oncoming train was saved after two police officers dragged him to safety ikn Phoenix, Arizona, US, reports The Mail on Sunday..

CCTV footage shows how the drama unfolded at night. The tramp gets up from his seat, shuffles over to the edge of the platform before losing his balance and tipping headfirst on to the track.

At the top of the picture the lights of the train can be seen with officers Terrell Granberry and Matthew Brandt charging up the platform to rescue the man who is lying alongside the track

It is then that police assistants Terrell Granberry, 23, and Matthew Brandt, 34, sprinted over to the man waving their hands at the train driver to stop. As he pulls on the emergency brake they haul the drunk on to the platform and out of harm's way.

Mr Granberry said the incident happened at 8.45pm as the train was no more than 100ft away and pulling into a station near Central Avenue and Thomas Road.






'Once we saw that [the man fall on the track], we pretty much sprinted over to the guy, making sure the train saw us jumping onto the track before the train got to where he was,' he told The Arizona Republic.

The train driver saw them and pulled the emergency brake giving the officers, who monitor the railway, the enough time to lift the man back onto the platform.

'The first initial thought was "I hope this train can stop,'" Mr Granberry said. "That's always the first - when we went through training, they told us it takes the train so much time to stop according to how many feet it has to stop, and I mean, we just didn't have time to think about the mathematics of whether this train could stop or not."

Sgt Tommy Thompson, spokesman for Phoenix Police Department, praised the two men: 'They may not carry guns, but they do an important job," he said. 'Many times we don't think anything of them, but because they were there, they were able to jump out and prevent this individual from further injury.'

Both police assistants also credit the train operator with the successful outcome of the situation. They said he stopped the train in time to make sure no one was injured.

'I wasn't thinking about myself I was just thinking about him. Now I think back I'm like going, wow, this was pretty close. We could have ended our lives right there,' said Mr Brandt.

Police say the man was a homeless man who was eventually taken to a local shelter.