A New York police officer kept a stabbing victim alive by using an empty bag of crisps and tape.

NYPD officer Ronald Kennedy has been praised by police bosses for his quick thinking after placing the makeshift tourniquet over the man’s wound.

The extraordinary action was captured on body cam after the officer responded to a reported stabbing in Harlem on 7 July.

“Above & beyond!” Police Commissioner Dermot Shea tweeted on Friday. “NY’s #Finest at work…”

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The victim, a 28-year-old man, had been stabbed in his torso, the department said.

“Go get me a bag of potato chips right now,” Mr Kennedy is heard ordering a bystander on the body camera recording.

The victim then tells the officer: “He caught me in my lung.”

“I know, I know,” Mr Kennedy says. “Just relax.”

After a bystander brings the officer an unopened bag of Lay’s crisps, Mr Kennedy hastily opens and empties the bag on to the ground.

He then tells the bystander: “Go in there and get me tape.”

He asks two others to help him lay the victim down on the ground before using tape to secure the flattened crisps bag to the man’s bleeding chest.

Mr Kennedy reassures the victim: “We got you. We got you. Stay with me.”

When paramedics arrive, Mr Kennedy tells them: “I tried. It’s the best I could do with what I got.”

He helps paramedics remove the bag and apply gauze to the wound.

“Keep breathing, bro,” Mr Kennedy says, before the victim is taken to hospital in a critical condition.

Police said in a statement that the attending physician attributed the victim’s survival to Mr Kennedy’s actions.

The victim was still in a critical but stable condition in hospital on Sunday.

Officers arrested Eric Rodriguez, 38, on suspicion of attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the stabbing on 11 July, police said.

New York City jail records indicate that he was released on Friday. No reason was listed.