AUSTRIA, VIENNA: Meet Askar Al-Hajri, he’s a Saudi citizen who was holidaying in Austria, and he’s a hero. Al-Hajri was visiting Hallstatt, a village in Austria, with two of his colleagues when he saw a young girl fall from a 5-meter-high fence into a lake. Now the Saudi Embassy in Vienna has hailed him a “hero” for his courageous actions. The embassy would like to thank Saudi citizen Askar al-Hajri for his brave act earlier this week. While visiting Hallstatt he saw a man and his daughter drowning and dived into the lake to save them. We offer our gratitude to this Saudi hero. — Botschaft des Königreichs Saudi Arabien in Wien (@KSAembassyAT) August 10, 2022 “The girl was sitting on the fence as her father snapped photos of her before she suddenly fell into the lake,” Al-Hajri told the Saudi news channel Al Ekhbariya . Hearing wails and screams from the lake, Al-Hajri said he was first assured when he looked over and found that the father had jumped to his daughter’s rescue. But Al-Hajri said the situation quickly worsened when both disappeared under the water. “That’s when I had to take action and save them,” he said during the interview. Al-Hajri jumped into the lake and with the help of his colleagues, he said he was able to get the girl and her father out of the water. “I had the feelings of a father watching his daughter in the lake. I did not hesitate for one second to jump in the lake with the thought that we either live together or die together,” he explained. A video, which appears to be shot by one of the three men, showed Al-Hajri and one of his colleagues in the lake as a group of passersby were comforting the young girl on ground. It widely circulated online with social media users praising Al-Hajri as “a hero.” | السفارة #السعودية في #فيينا تشكر المواطن #عسكر_الهاجري على شجاعته بإنقاذ رجل وابنته من الغرق في إحدى البحيرات . pic.twitter.com/5PJpCAQnUi — عناد العتيبي (@ENAD_Alotaibi) August 10, 2022 In a tweet, the Saudi embassy in Vienna acknowledged the Saudi citizen “for his brave act.” “We offer our gratitude to this Saudi hero,” the embassy said.