PARKER CO, TX (NBC News) — Several Texas jail inmates are credited with saving the life of one of their jailers.

Surveillance video shows the eight inmates in a basement holding cell at the Weatherford District Court Building when the guard stationed outside stopped breathing and slumped over in his chair.

“He was just talking to them, and he just kind of collapsed,” Capt. Mark Arnett with the Parker County Sheriff’s Office told NBC News. “As soon as the jailer went down, they started to yell.”

The inmates, all of them still shackled, broke out of their cell, assisted the man, and started yelling for help.

Sheriff’s deputies quickly rushed to the basement, corralled the inmates back into the cell and called for paramedics.

The jailer, who doesn’t want to be identified, is healthy now and is returning to work on Monday, Arnett said. The precise medical condition he suffered hasn’t been disclosed.

The holding cell only has a “pretty flimsy lock gate” on it, unlike the reinforced doors of jail cells, Arnett said.

“All the inmates, they’re in handcuffs,” he said. “We just stick them in there so they’re not wandering around and so they don’t grab somebody’s gun.”Read more: http://nbcnews.to/29xZKr5What others are clicking on: