Fisherman pulls toddler from the sea after he crawled out of parents tent and waded into the water
Gus Hutt rescued the 18-month-old child after he found him floating at a steady pace with a rip in the water off Matata Beach in New Zealand
A New Zealand fisherman who saved the life of a drowning toddler after initially having mistaken it for a doll has been praised for the quick-thinking that allowed him to save the child in the nick of time. Gus Hutt is now a local hero, and he says there was a stroke of luck that allowed him to be at the right place at the right time.
Hutt had been staying at Murphy's Holiday Camp that fateful day when the incident unfolded. He was casting a line off Matata Beach in the North Island at a spot he was not accustomed to — he usually fished in a different part of the beach — when he eyed what he thought was a porcelain doll in the water.