Unknown 'hero' helps man who fell on Toronto subway tracks

A bystander says the man in the animal shirt jumped onto the subway tracks to rescue the man on the ground

A man is being heralded as a local hero after he jumped on to subway tracks in Canada to help a fallen man who is believed to be blind.

Commuter Julia Caniglia posted a photo of the rescue at Broadview Station in Toronto on social media. The image has since caught national attention.

Two other Good Samaritans can be seen helping pull the man to safety.

His rescuers left the scene before they could be identified, and the man was taken to hospital.

"If they hadn't reacted so quickly, the outcome would have been horrific," Ms Caniglia wrote on Instagram after posting the photo.

She says she hopes her photo will help bring the men some recognition for their quick-thinking and heroism.

Ms Caniglia wrote that she witnessed the event while on a subway car going in the opposite direction.

"When my subway car pulled up at Broadview station I heard a faint voice call out 'help, help me please'," she wrote.

"It wasn't coming from anyone in the car and after hearing it again I stood up and looked out on the platform... [I] saw a man with a walking cane lying on the tracks."

The woman said the man appeared to be blind, as he was carrying a white cane.

"Without hesitation the man you see in this picture in the animal shirt jumped into the tracks to pull him out. Thankfully two other men showed up to help as well and this story has a happy ending."

City transit officials told the Toronto Star both the man and his rescuer could have been electrocuted by the third rail, which supplies power to the trains, if it were not for a customer who pressed a button cutting off power to the tracks.