A US actor rescued a teenager from Seoul’s Han river after hearing screams and taking a jet ski into the water.
Michael Blunck, an American actor who appeared in Korean dramas like Jewel Bibimbap and New Tales of Gisaeng, said he heard screams on the morning of 14 September.
“Well, about 7.41, 7.42 in the morning, I was walking around the office and I heard some screaming from outside,” Blunck told South Korean broadcaster SBS.
“So, I came out and I saw just a head in the water and it looked like he was trying to swim.”
Blunck took a jet ski out to reach him, with CCTV footage showing him heading towards the river. The person in the water was a male middle-school student.
The student reportedly apologised to Blunck after being rescued. He spoke to the actor in English, which Blunck said was “really, really good”.
“He’s like, ‘I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry to make you come out here.’ And I said, ‘No, it’s no problem. Don’t worry about it,’” Blunck said.
He also described trying to reassure the teenager after pulling him from the water, saying: “I shook his head and I hit his shoulder and just tried to be friendly with him. Tried to be a good big brother or an uncle,” he said.
Firefighters and the Han river police arrived after an emergency call and took the student from Blunck, according to The Korea Herald.
A fire department official said there were no abnormalities with the student’s consciousness or breathing before he was handed over to paramedics.
“I just want him to be happy. I want him to feel love from his family and friends, his teachers,” Blunck said.
The rescue has brought Blunck back into the South Korean spotlight more than a decade after his acting career. He appeared as a foreigner who comes to South Korea to become a Buddhist monk in MBC’s Jewel Bibimbap, which began airing in September 2009.
The former actor came to South Korea 15 years ago and had learned Korean for the role, according to Yonhap.
He also appeared in SBS’s New Tales of Gisaeng in 2011, where he played an English teacher at Buyonggak, the traditional gisaeng house at the centre of the drama.
Blunck has since left the entertainment industry and now works for a bottle manufacturing company, according to local media.
His identity was recognised by a witness who saw him heading towards the river. The witness told SBS that the man looked like a foreigner, but “when I zoomed in to take a picture, I realised he was an actor from a drama”.
