A police-mad four-year-old boy has been hailed as a hero after calling 999 when his mum collapsed at home.
Essa Khan sprang into action when his mum collapsed in the living room of their home in Teesdale Road, Carrington, on Saturday.
Despite his tender years Essa, who only turned four in March, managed to find his mum’s mobile phone, select the emergency call function, and dialled 999 – a number remembered from the roof of one of his toy cars.
In the 17-minute call that followed Essa was able to tell the Nottinghamshire Police operator that his mum had fallen down.
After tracing the call using technology, officers were sent to the address as a priority.
Expecting to have to break-in, they were greeted instead by Essa who calmly passed the front door keys through the letter box.
Mum Charlotte explained: “I woke up to find two police officers in the room and had no idea what had happened. At first I thought they must have broken-in because I always leave the door locked.
“When one of them told me what Essa had done for me I just couldn’t believe it. I never thought in a million years that we would have been able to do that. Not only did he know which number to call, who also even knew how to bypass my password on my phone to make an emergency call.
“It all made more sense when I remembered that he has a toy police car with 999 printed on the roof. He absolutely loves the police. He likes to play cops and robbers and has all sorts of police toys – cars, helicopters, you name it.
“We really couldn’t be prouder of him. He was a real hero on the day and I really have no idea what would have happened if he’d not managed to raise the alarm in the way he did.”
PC Reece Morris, of Nottinghamshire Police, was first on the scene. He said: “He came to the door with a set of keys and passed them through the letterbox for us.
“For such a young lad he really did a fantastic job for his mum and should be really proud of himself.
“He kept calm, remembered what he’d learned about the police and did exactly the right thing.”
Superintendent Sukesh Verma, head of contact management at Nottinghamshire Police, said: “On this occasion our call handlers did a fantastic job and followed their training to the letter. They are highly trained to assess the risk of harm and did everything I would have expected of them to follow up on this call and ensure it got the response it deserved.
“Every police officer and staff member is motivated to keep the public safe and that’s exactly what they did on this occasion. But clearly we wouldn’t have been able to do anything without Essa’s bravery and quick thinking. So, on behalf of everyone at Nottinghamshire Police, I would like to say a huge thank you to him.”
