Two passers-by jumped into the Vardar near the Stone Bridge and pulled out a woman. Not police officers, not a rescue service - two ordinary people who happened to be walking past and did not hesitate.

The woman, around 50 years old, was spotted in the water in the centre of Skopje. According to the information available, the two men from the municipality of Chair reacted immediately, without waiting for help. After she was pulled out, an emergency medical team took over and transported her to the emergency centre at the „Mother Teresa” clinical complex, where she received medical care.

Two intervention police units and a team from the „Alfa” unit arrived at the scene. So far there is no official information about the circumstances in which the woman ended up in the river, nor about her condition.

Two people who were walking past. That is the sentence the whole story turns on. There was no plan, no training, no equipment - there was only the moment when somebody sees a person in the water and decides what to do with those few seconds.

The Stone Bridge is one of the busiest spots in the city. Thousands of people pass that stretch of the Vardar every day. Which means many had the same opportunity, and two of them took it.

Their names are not known and probably never will be. There will be no ceremony, no plaque. They will go home wet and get on with their day, and some family in Skopje has a mother, a sister or a daughter tonight because of it.

The people whose names we know, we usually write about because they did something bad. These two deserve a mention precisely because there is nothing more to say about them than that they were there and they jumped.