FRANKFURT – Hundreds of people gathered in the German town of Hanau to bid farewell to a 17-year-old heroic young man who died while o saving an elderly homeless man from oncoming train.

“I am not a well-known or rich man but this crowd gathered here because of my son’s bravery,” father Ejder Sözen said at the funeral, Daily Sabah reported Saturday.

Mustafa Sözen, who was studying to be a lab technician, was waiting for his train in Frankfurt on Tuesday when he saw a drunken homeless man fall on the tracks.

Sözen and an unidentified man of Indian origin immediately jumped on the tracks and pulled the unidentified man to safety.

The other rescuer managed to leave the tracks, but Sözen failed to avoid the oncoming train and died. The man Sözen rescued escaped without any injuries.

The father said his son was “like an angel” and that he sacrificed his own life to save another.

He also criticized German police who told him that his son “might be a victim of a daring challenge to jump onto the tracks.”

A funeral was held on Friday in Hanau, the town where he lived with his family and a large crowd showed up to bid farewell to Sözen, who is being hailed as a hero. German residents of the town also attended the Muslim boy’s funeral prayers.

Thomas Morlock, the head of the town council, said at the funeral that the teen would be remembered as the “hero of Hanau” and “an exemplary citizen.”

Another young Muslim was hailed as a hero when he risked his life to save a 91-year-old man who had been pushed onto the London train tracks in a random attack.

Riyad El Hassani, 24, described the moment as “just instinct”.