AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD boy has been hailed a hero after saving his little brother’s hand when it got stuck in an escalator.

Noah Chesworth managed to hit the emergency stop switch when his four-year-old brother Ethan got his hand trapped while they were out shopping with their parents – Shaun and Deborah – in H&M at Teesside Park, near Stockton, on Saturday.

“He’s a little hero – I am so proud of him,” said his 35-year-old father. “Ethan had put his hand down on one of the steps to sort out his shoe which had come off, but it got stuck.

“I started trying to pull his hand out the escalator but it just kept moving. I was shouting ‘stop it! stop it’, and I was ripping his fingers just in a desperate panic. I managed to free two of his fingers but the feeling was horrendous as it moved closer.”

However, the quick-thinking of older brother Noah stopped the youngster suffering even worse injuries.

Firefighters freed him before x-rays showed he had escaped with nasty cuts and bruises.

The Billingham father added: “It could have been catastrophic – he has come out with the bare minimum. But you look back and think it could have been so much worse – I dread to think if it could have happened.”