SYDNEY • Australia released hair-raising security images yesterday of a child falling through the gap between a train station platform and a train, as a reminder to parents to stay vigilant during the busy school holidays.

A train stops at a Sydney station and a woman pushes a stroller towards the open doors, in the closed-circuit television pictures.

As she prepares to lift the stroller onto the train, the child walking beside her plunges into the gap.

The woman then raises her arm to draw the attention of station staff, while passersby pull the apparently unharmed child back onto the platform.

"A simple thing such as holding your child's hand when moving around stations and boarding a train can help prevent them from being seriously injured or worse," New South Wales Transport Minister Andrew Constance said in a statement.

The woman's face was blurred in the footage.

The clip was widely shared on social media, with a post by Nine Entertainment drawing 1,600 comments and 1,100 shares.

In another clip released by the government, a child falls face first after tripping over the gap between train and station while disembarking. A third shows a young person running down the station stairs, only to trip and fall down several steps before hitting a handrail post.

More than half of train station accidents on the 178-station Sydney Trains network take place at the three busiest stations in the city's central business district, chief executive Howard Collins said.