action for the second time in a year.

Mr. Richardson, 28, heard the screams of a toddler who had his hand trapped under the moving belt of an escalator.

He rushed to stop the moving stairway and then helped care for the boy and his shocked mother.

It was Mr. Richardson's second rescue in about 12 months. Last year Mr.

Richardson, a former national team soccer player who now plays for Vasco, was on the scene to help a young boy who crashed his pedal bike and suffered head injuries.

This time his courage was called upon when screams rang out near the Sports Locker in the Annex, Reid Street, where he is a salesman.

A boy, about four-years-old, had trapped his hand in the escalator and was struggling to get free.

"His mother came to the money machine and I think he just wandered by the escalator,'' said Mr. Richardson, of Junction Lane, Devonshire.

"He must have been playing with the belt. He may have been gripping it and it just pulled his hand in there.

"It gets pretty warm underneath there. "His mother started screaming and I just ran over there because everyone was just standing still -- they were frightened.

"I was frightened myself, but when your adrenalin is pumping you forget all about fear.

"He was trying to pull himself out, but the escalator was just taking him in further.

"I just pushed the emergency button and stopped it, because his mom was fumbling with it out of panic.

"He was really frightened and he kept screaming. If I hadn't reacted, probably his whole arm would have gone in there.

"There was a young lady who also helped out -- I believe she was an ex-nurse.

"He sort of came around and from there we just sat him on a bench. I ran to the Fourways pastry shop, got some ice and wrapped it up and put it on his hand. I just kept shouting for someone to call 911.'' Paramedics and firefighters arrived and Mr. Richardson carried the toddler downstairs.

The boy's hand was swollen and he had lost some skin, he said. But the boy's mother had since called and said her son was fine.

A witness to the incident, who asked not to be named, said Mr. Richardson deserved praise for saving the boy. She said everybody, including herself, froze when it happened.

"But he dashed to the escalator, turned it off, and freed the boy's hand.

Then he ran down and got ice and wrapped the boy's wounded hand.'' EARL RICHARDSON -- Rescued a toddler.