Corinne Brosseau - a true heroine.

Corinne Brosseau is a true heroine.

She might claim not to be one, but Stéphane, a 40-year-old wheelchair-bound man from the western French town of Bouguenais, certainly thinks she is.

Corinne Brosseau (screenshot BFM TV report)

Brosseau saved his life, pulling him out of the path of a train reportedly travelling at 170 kilometres an hour.

As Stéphane told the regional daily Ouest France, he was taking the level crossing in the town just as he did every day to go to work.

"I was right in the middle of the crossing when I heard the bell go and saw the barriers come down," he said.

"And for some reason - I don't know why - my wheelchair got stuck in the tracks," he continued.

"I could hear a train coming. I was terrified."

Luckily for him though, it was at that moment that Brosseau arrived to rescue him - and she only just managed.

"It was raining, the barriers had gone down and I could see there was a man in a wheelchair in the middle of the crossing clearly unable to move," she told Europe 1 radio.

"I got out of my car, rushed over to him and after a couple of attempts managed to pull him from his chair to the side of the track and out of the path of an oncoming train."

Her quick thinking and actions undoubtedly saved Stéphane's life because the train hit the wheelchair full on, leaving it fit only for the scrap yard.

(screenshot BFM TV report)

But Brosseau remained modest about the part she played in the rescue.

"I only did what anyone would have done under the circumstances," she said, admitting that her arms had ached for the rest of the day.

"It was instinctive and I'm convinced that we all have it in us to find the strength to do what's necessary," she added.

But for Stéphane there's no doubting that she's his heroine.

"She's an extraordinary woman," he told BFM TV.

"She saved my life."

French man saves pregnant woman from drowning

Give it up for Eddy Devauchelle, a true modern-day hero in the real sense of the word, if ever there were one.

Last Wednesday evening, the 42-year-old electrician jumped into a freezing cold river to rescue a pregnant woman who was trapped inside a car.

And all he had to say after his act of bravery was "I was just doing my duty as a citizen."

It happened in the northern French city of Amiens after the car in which the woman and her husband had been driving was hit by another vehicle and was sent into the river, overturning in the process.

When Devauchelle arrived on the scene he reportedly saw two people kneeling at the water's edge and a man in the river with water up to his neck crying out for help.

"I got out of my car, took off my jacket and wet the back of my neck - the water was freezing," he told the local newspaper, 'Le Courrier Picard'".

He wasn't kidding. The outside air temperature was minus four degrees Celsius.

"And then I got into the river and made my way to the car," he continued.

When Devauchelle reached the car he saw that the eight month pregnant woman was trapped inside, unconscious, and after several attempts managed to force open the door and release her from her seat belt.

After he had made his way back to the river bank with the still unconscious woman, Devauchelle asked others to give him a hand pulling her out of the water.

"They were just standing there doing nothing and I have to admit I wasn't exactly polite," he said, adding that after he had put the woman in the recovery position and she started to come round he asked two girls present to continue rubbing her back.

"I returned to my car to grab a couple of fleeces to keep her warm," he said, while everyone waited for the emergency services to arrive.

Both the expectant mother and her husband were taken to a nearby hospital, where she was kept in for observations, but the hero of the hour was quite clearly Devauchelle,

And the following day the Prefect of the Picardie region, Michel Delpuech, awarded Devauchelle a silver grade medal for courage and dedication "to acknowledge this act of rescue which deserves admiration."

And so say all of us.

Isn't Eddy Devauchelle just the kind of man you would want to have around when it matters?