THIS is the dramatic moment a soldier saved the life of a woman who had fallen in front of a moving train.

The pictures, obtained by the Echo, show hero Billy McPhail, of Devonshire Road, Laindon, frantically trying to get the woman back onto the station platform.

The woman, who was in her sixties, had collapsed onto the train tracks just moments earlier.

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The footage, shot from the cockpit of the train, is exactly what the terrified South Eastern train driver would have seen as they pulled into the station.

It shows people standing on the platform pumping their arms and frantically trying to get the attention of the driver to stop the train.

Mr McPhail, 26, was on the tracks at the time, trying to pull the woman to her feet.
He manages to succeed before facing the momentous task of pushing the woman back onto the tracks.

After several agonising seconds, thanks to Mr McPhail pushing and several waiting passengers pulling, she makes it to safety.

He then jumps back onto the platform, at Strood Station, in Kent, while the train manages to come to a halt.

A man who had been flagging it down gave the driver the thumbs up.

People gathered round the woman, who had had slipped from the station platform and broken her ankle, to make sure she was ok while Mr McPhail checks on her once before unassumedly getting on with the rest of his day.

The last part of the video shows the train restarting and pulling into the station while would-be passengers get on their phones to call for an ambulance.

Neither the woman nor Mr McPhail were hurt in the near miss.

Commuters praised the soldier, who wants to be a paratrooper, as a hero.

Echo: Lifesaver - Billy can be seen on the electrified tracks as other commuters wave desperately at the driver

But Mr McPhail has shrugged off the compliments.

He said: “I am really not a hero, I just acted on instinct.

“I was just thinking, ‘if I don’t get her off the tracks then she will die’.”

A spokesman from Southeastern Trains, which operates Strood Station, said: “What Mr McPhail did was commendable, he took it upon himself to save this woman’s life.

“However Strood Station has a live electrical line and our advice is usually in the event of an emergency to contact station staff and they will call the signallers to cut power to the line.

“However Mr McPhail acted on instinct and without any regard for his own safety, saved this woman’s life.”