This is the heartwarming moment a paralysed man jumped into the sea to save a drowning man while filming a documentary about how he lost his legs on the same pier.

Nikita Vankov did not think twice about helping when he saw the swimmer struggling in Anapa, Russia on October 6.

He left his wheelchair and bravely jumped into the water to help pull the man to safety.

Nikita said two men tried to help the man before him, but after seeing that they were struggling, he also dived into the water as he had previous experience with rescuing a drowning swimmer.

He took off his clothes and umped to them before dragging him to the shore. He held his breath and embraced the drowning man so that his head is on the surface.

This all happened while they were filming a documentary about him telling the story about how he lost his legs in the same pier 13 years ago by trying to save a drowning man.

He had three fractured vertebrae that are beyond treatment so he had to use a wheelchair ever since.

Nikita said: “Today was a very difficult day, a documentary was filmed, we had a location on the pier where I suffered my trauma. The sunset was beautiful but I had a lot of emotions from painful memories. Then I saw these two guys pulling a friend who was drowning.

''Never in my life could I have thought that I would find myself in a direct situation of human salvation. Emotions have not cooled down yet and I think it is important to show such situations, for people's faith in people.''


The drowning man was pulled to safety. He said that he was swimming fine until his legs cramped.

He was given first aid treatment at the port and the filming crew continued with the documentary.