Cai Yingbo

AN expatriate rescued two children from an apartment fire in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, on Saturday night.

Fredric Andersson, 38, of Sweden, who suffered minor injuries, said he was taking a walk downstairs when he saw an apartment on fire on the third floor of a building in Wendefu Garden where he lives at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday.

“When I saw the fire, my first reaction was to save anyone who might be stranded in the fire,” Andersson said yesterday.

When he entered the apartment, it was full of thick smoke, which reduced visibility. ”I wet my body and bent over close to the floor. Fortunately there was nobody in the apartment,” he said.

Leaving the room, he found two children, a boy and a girl, standing on the stairs choking in the smoke, too scared to move. He grabbed them and rushed out of the building.

A resident, surnamed Long, said when she saw a foreigner coming out of the building with two children, she thought they might have been his.

“We were so moved after learning what Andersson had done,” she said. “In comparison, many other residents were so scared that they just watched from a distance.”

Andersson had inhaled smoke and had injuries to his waist and legs. He was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Long said Andersson asked about the two children while he was in hospital and was relieved when told the children were safe and sound.

“That is not a big deal. I just helped people who needed assistance,” he said.

Andersson, who has been in Shenzhen for more than two and a half years, has a Chinese wife. He is general manager of a joint-venture company in Bao’an District.

Police believed the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit.