Luu Duc Huy, Pham Hong Anh and La Minh Anh, all 12, were on their way home from school late in the afternoon of December 29 when they saw Tran Thi Ken, 83, struggling to get out of an irrigation ditch.

The ditch was more than 2m wide and at the time Ken fell into it, the water level was 1m, while the temperature was 12 degrees Celcius.

The three students, who are classmates at Binh Khe Secondary School in Dong Trieu Commune, Quang Ninh Province, rushed to pull Ken out of the ditch and called for help from adults to take her home safely.

The next day, Ken came to the school to thank the three students and give them some gifts.

"It was not until then that the school learned about the good work that those students had done," Principal Nguyen Thi Lan Anh said Tuesday.

All three said they'd done nothing special, adding that anyone in their situation would have done the same thing, she said.

Ken said had the children not come to help her at the time she fell into the ditch, she could have been in danger as her "entire body froze and it was too cold."

Source: VNE