Freight train sends family flying as they pose for track-side photo

A family posing for a photo beside a railway track in Brazil were lucky not to be killed when a passing train knocked father and son to the ground.

Footage shows the father crouched next to the train tracks in the city of Sarandi Parana at the weekend, holding his young son in his arms and with another small child at his feet, Manchete reports.

They were posing for what they hoped would be the perfect shot, just as a locomotive rolled by and into frame.

Instead the train got the perfect shot on them, with the cattle plow — which is designed to smash obstacles out of its way — sending the father and son flying into the air just as the mother was able to take the photo.