Dramatic video shows a toddler who climbed onto an airport luggage conveyor belt in the US, and rode around the baggage network.
Edith Vega said her two-year-old son Lorenzo hopped onto the belt when she briefly put him down to print boarding passes at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday.
Security video shows Lorenzo being pulled through a rubber curtain, beyond the reach of his mother and an airport worker.
He crawled over bags, trying to avoid being pulled through a screening machine.
He popped out on the other side, only to tumble down into another room where startled security workers gave him hugs.
Authorities said he suffered a broken hand in the ordeal.
The screening machine had detected a problem, and diverted the child on a path for bags in need of more checks, Transportation Security Administration spokesman Mark Howell said.
“The officers who work down there, almost all of them are parents,” Mr Howell said. “Their initial instinct was to get that kid back to the mom. They kicked into overdrive to try and get him upstairs.”
Mr Howell spoke with some of the workers who were on duty that day in the noisy baggage area, who recalled hearing what they thought was a cat screaming. Once they saw the child, they raced to his aid, the video shows.
“It was quite a moment that really brought perspective to life and how important life is,” one of the TSA workers, Christopher Strickland, told ABC’s Good Morning America .
The child’s hand was fractured, but he’s otherwise OK, authorities said.
“I’m thankful he’s alive,” Ms Vega told WSB-TV . “That’s all that goes through my mind. I’m just grateful he’s here.”
