A kind-hearted woman helped a father rescue his young son when the boy fell into the gap between a train and the platform.

Footage shows the child with his foot stuck in the tracks as he cried and screamed for help from beneath the halted high-speed train on September 18.

The accident happened while he was alighting with his parents at the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station in Shanghai, the biggest city in China.

The distressed father, who was not named, can be seen hovering over the gap and trying to console the sobbing child while other passengers rush to get off.

At that moment, a middle-aged female passenger named Li Juan happened to walk past and noticed the emergency.

Without hesitating, Li bent down and reportedly told the father she would help him get the boy out. She noticed that the child's foot was tightly wedged in the tracks below and he could not be pulled out by force.

Instead, she grabbed a long stick she found nearby and carefully inserted it into the gap, attempting to pry it open. After several attempts, she finally succeeded in freeing the child's foot.

Another piece of footage shows the moment Li and the worried father pull the boy out of the gap and bring him up on the platform.

Afterwards, Li humbly told local media: 'I just fulfilled the duty of an ordinary person; there's nothing to be proud of.'

The incident has also raised awareness about public safety but some residents blamed the boy's parents for being careless and letting the boy slip through.