Student at the National Police Academy saved an 18 year old girl that she was walking disoriented in a Madrid metro tunnel, which caused traffic to stop. Pablo, that’s the name of the agent, did it while he was going to the Salamanca district to visit a friend.
“The train stopped unexpectedly and they told us over the loudspeaker that we had to wait. At that moment I got worried and went to the driver’s cabin to ask what was happening,” he explained to the media. The agent, originally from Seville and aged 23, declared that he was on leave in the capital after participating in support work during DANA in Valencia.
It was then that he noticed the woman’s presence. “From the end of the platform I saw a young woman from the depths of the tunnel walk along the tracks. He was wearing a white tracksuit and had a black mark on his face. At first I thought it might be someone from maintenance, but the driver confirmed that it wasn’t normal. That’s when I knew I had to act,” he said.
The agent tried to communicate with the young woman from the platform, but she did not respond. “I identified myself as a police officer and asked him to deviate from the beaten path, but didn’t say a word“, he detailed.
Jump on the slopes
After seeing the person walk away, Pablo decided to go down the railway tracks without knowing if traffic was completely stopped. “At that point I didn’t know if the trains were still passing in the other direction, but I was clear that I couldn’t let her continue walking. At school, we are taught from day one that we are the police 24 hours a day and that we must act whenever necessary,” he assured.
Once on the road, Pablo again identified himself as a police officer and insisted he was there to help. “Finally, I managed to catch her and bring her back to the platform.“, he said.
The officer was assisted by private security personnel, who helped the woman to her feet. Once off the beaten path, he took it upon himself to calm her down and gather information about her situation. “I asked my colleagues to give me a moment alone with her. I wanted to check if she was Spanish, if she had suffered violence or if she had been missing for days. Little by little, with the data obtained, we confirmed that it was not missing, I was just disoriented“, he stressed.
Training at school
Pablo stressed that, even if this was not his first contact with a risky situation, this episode reaffirms him in his vocation. “They prepare us to intervene quickly and show us real cases where every second is vital. It was clear that I had to intervene and I knew that I had the support of my teachers and the organization,” he declared to highlight his training as a student at the National Police Academy.
Regarding the young woman’s conditions, the officer added that she did not appear to be homeless and showed no signs of having lived outside, although She was “a little disheveled and visibly disoriented”. According to the police officer himself, this condition made first contact difficult, but his priority was to guarantee the woman’s safety.
The rescue lasted no more than 60 seconds. “When you’re in a situation like that, everything happens very quickly. Barely a minute passes from the moment you make the decision until you manage to get the person to safety. The tension and responsibility are enormous, but we are trained to react in these cases,” he stressed.
