Boy, 5, jumps on bike to save dad

Boy cycled in the rain at night to raise the alarm after his father collapsed in front of him at home

A FIVE-year-old boy has been praised after he jumped on his bike and cycled in the rain to raise the alarm after his father suffered a heart attack at home in the Mayenne.

Kévin-Djéné was spotted by a driver on a dark rural road in Saint-Pierre-la-Cour in the cold, wearing just pyjamas and flip-flops.

When asked where he was going, the panicked boy told the driver: "My dad has died" and he was cycling to find his mother, who was working a night-shift 16km away.

With the help of another driver, they managed to piece together where he lived and alerted gendarmes and pompiers who found the father unconscious and transported him to hospital.

The first driver, Jean-François, told Ouest France: "This boy is incredible. What he did was very smart. His mother has called me to thank me and to say that her husband has now left hospital."

The boy's mother Djénéba says the driver not only helped save her husband's life, but also her son's, who was vulnerable cycling along a country road at night in the rain.

Le petit héros de 5 ans (et son vélo) qui a sauvé son père en pleine nuit ! A lire ici https://t.co/kbP7pXRJkM pic.twitter.com/VpUu6aSSZM— L'édition du soir (@leditiondusoir) January 8, 2016

[Update]
On Sunday January 10, three days after this incident, the body of Kévin-Djéné's father was discovered at the family home. A short investigation found that he had committed suicide.

A spokesman for the police said the family had no previous history of trouble and that the community had been shocked by his death.