Two 12-year-olds who rescued disabled pensioners from a burning building and a woman who steered a runaway bus out of the path of an oncoming car are among two dozen individuals recognised for their outstanding bravery.
Carys Calder and her cousin Lynsay Cumming, who were both 12 at the time, carried their great-great aunt and grandmother from a house in Ayr when an electric blanket caught fire.
They have been presented with the Scottish Government's Brave@Heart award for their courageous act, alongside Agnes Crystal who grabbed the wheel of a runaway bus in Dundee when the driver left the handbrake off.
Ms Crystal, who has never held a driving licence, steered the bus away from an oncoming vehicle and into a barrier.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "The Brave@Heart Awards recognise and celebrate people who have shown exceptional bravery, whether in battling the elements to save others, by intervening to stop a criminal in the act or by showing life-saving instincts in the toughest of circumstances.
"This year's winners range in age from 13 to over 60. They live all over the country and are from all walks of life. What they have in common is that each and every one of them has shown remarkable courage and that deserves wholehearted recognition."
Other recipients are Angus Blackburn, who risked his life to pull a child from a burning building, and acting charge nurse Margaret Dunlop, who evacuated the entire high-dependence unit of Ayr hospital when a faulty refrigerator started leaking gas.
Several people were recognised for facing down attackers, including shopworker Euan George Brown who disarmed a knifeman who tried to rob his shop in Orkney and newsagent Stacey Lynch who helped police hunt down a man who threatened her with a syringe.
Four police constables have been recognised, including one who was stabbed in the arm by a man threatening to kill himself with a knife and a diminutive police probationer who restrained a large, drunk schizophrenic man who had been driving erratically.
Set up by First Minister Alex Salmond in 2010, the annual awards invite the emergency services and other emergency responders to nominate members of their professions and members of the public.
Other winners are a couple who waded into the fast-flowing River Tweed to save a man from drowning, three men who pulled a man from the sea and several people who rescued individuals from crashed vehicles.
