A foreigner rescued a man who swallowed his tongue during an epileptic fit outside the Agricultural Bank of China on Guangzhou’s Shiyou New Road on Sunday (November 4), Nanfang Daily reports.

A man in his 30s collapsed on the road shortly after withdrawing money at 12:30pm. He lay in what the paper describes as a “crucifix shape”. As has happened many times before, a number of pedestrians walked past as if he wasn’t there. Later, a foreigner was seen crouching over the man and helping him.

A witness told the paper the foreigner spoke no Chinese but appeared to know what he was doing in resuscitating the man. A witness surnamed Li dialled 110 for emergency services. The foreigner left as soon as he saw the victim was out of danger, before police arrived.

When paramedics arrived, the epileptic said he lived in Wuyang Town and his epilepsy was incurable so there was no point going to the hospital. People surrounding him spent up to 30 minutes trying to convince him to go, but he was adamant that he would not.

This incident in which a lone foreigner acted while Chinese ignored a person in need bears resemblance to a number of incidents in the past year, namely that of a Brazilian in Dongguan who we told you about.