SHARJAH // A mother had to be dissuaded by shocked neighbours from throwing her two young children from the seventh floor window of her blazing apartment yesterday afternoon in a desperate bid to save their lives.
As residents assembled beneath the burning flat in the Abu Shagara area, just behind Mega Mall, the woman appeared at the window crying out to them to catch her children before they hit the ground.
"She held one child about three years old and was about to throw him," said Zubairi, an Indian national who rushed to the building to help. "She was thinking that the people gathered below should catch him before he hit the ground - but this was all too dangerous.
"Everyone kept asking her to wait a small time.
"It was an excellent example of a mother's heart, pleading to save her children and not herself even in such a desperate crisis."
As the situation became more life threatening, firefighters arrived and helped the Arabic mother and her two children escape the blaze. They were taken to Kuwait hospital uninjured but suffering for smoke inhalation.
Zeinabdin Ismail, who lives next door to the family, thanked firefighters for arriving at the scene so quickly.
"The building fire alarms were good and helped everyone to leave on time," he said. "But the biggest thanks go to the civil defence officials that rescued our neighbours who were trapped in the fire.
"The consequences would have been devastating to all of us, especially my family as our children play together."
The cause of the fire was still under investigation.
Meanwhile, in Ajman, a bus carrying labourers to work caught fire in the Jurf area yesterday morning.
The men were able to escape from the bus and no one was hurt, said First Lt Salem Al Zaabi, the director of media and public relations at Ajman Civil Defence.
