Fifty-year-old Chen Qianqiang walked onto the Yangtze River Bridge in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province, at 8:00 AM and began his regular patrol.

His job is to detect suicide attempts and do his best to stop them.

At around 3:00 on the afternoon of Dec. 3, on only his third day on the job, he heard someone shout, "Chen, somebody is trying to jump off the bridge." Rushing to the southern bridgehead, he saw a person bending over the rail, teetering. He grabbed the person from behind, and dragged her back.

With the aid of some passersby, Chen helped the woman who wanted to commit suicide to a room at the bridgehead and offered her a cup of warm water. Then he started a conversation. About half an hour later, the woman said, "I'd like to go back home."

Chen helped the woman aboard a bus heading downtown. "I saved a life, it's a wonderful feeling," he said joyfully.

About four hundred suicide attempts are made at the bridge every year. Provincial police have established a special rescue team to stop the attempts.

"The team is funded by the provincial police. So far four men have been recruited," said a police spokesman. Besides Chen, the other three rescuers are Shi Wei, Wang Mantang and Guoqiang.

(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2006)