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A toddler has had a lucky escape in New Zealand after he was pulled from the sea alive by a fisherman who happened to see him float by.
Unknown to his sleeping parents, the 18-month-old baby had pulled up the zipper of their tent at a campsite last month, before crawling under the flap and heading to the beach.
A fisherman, Gus Hutt, happened at 7.15am at the beach in the Bay of Plenty area of the North Island when he spotted the baby, named Malachi, float past.
At first, he thought he saw a doll in the ocean, but when he was pulling it ashore he realized he had rescued a baby when the boy "let out a little squeak".
Mr Hutt told the 'Whakatāne Beacon': "His face is like looking at his hair.
"But then he let out a little squeak and I thought, 'oh God, this is a baby and it's alive' He was floating at a steady pace with a rip in the water.
"If I had not been there, or if I had just been a minute later I would not have seen him."
Mr Hutt's wife Sue ran to the park manager, who directed her to the only visitors with a baby.
Mr Hutt said: "She's going to the tent and just shook it and asked, 'where's your baby? We just got one from the sea, and the mother just screamed."
Malachi 's mother, Jessica Whyte, ran to collect her baby at the park' s reception where he appeared purple, cold and smaller than usual.
She said: "It was scary but he was breathing, he was alive."
Ms Whyte said he normally woke at 8am but might have risen early to the sound of the waves. She also explained that they had stopped Malachi from running into the sea before.
Mr Hutt said he followed the boy's "little footprints" to the beach and that he had entered the water.
He said: "It was about [50 feet] I had my rod, so he was not in the water long. I must've just missed seeing him go in … He was bloody lucky, but he just was not meant to go; it was not his time. "
Emergency services treated the boy who seems to be perfectly happy with his parents after getting out of hospital.
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