18-month-old boy rescued by a fisherman in New Zealand

A New Zealand fisherman has rescued an 18-month-old boy from the ocean, in an incident described as a “freakish miracle”.

Gus Hutt, a holiday camper staying on Matata Beach on North Island, was fishing when he spotted a small figure floating in the water.

BBC reports that the rescuer first thought it was a doll and only realised it was a baby after he “let out a little squeak”. The boy had escaped from his parents’ tent and ended up in the ocean.

“I thought he was a doll. [Even as] I reached out and grabbed him by the arm, I still thought it was a doll,” Mr Hutt told local outlet the NZ Herald.

“His face looked just like porcelain with his short hair wetted down, but then he let out a little squeak and I thought ‘oh God this is a baby and it’s alive’.”

The mother who had her young son plucked from the ocean by a fisherman said the incident felt like a nightmare and her heart stopped beating. Jessica Whyte told Stuff she was woken by the camp manager at Matata Beach to the news her son had been found floating in the sea.

Whyte said the news dealt like a sick joke when she was told at 7.30am and it was “horrible in between hearing that and seeing him”. “I don’t think my heart [beat] from hearing that to seeing him. I don’t think my heart worked,” she said.