A police hostage negotiator spent nearly an hour convincing a man who had barricaded himself inside the controller’s cabin of a 45-metre crane in Richards Bay on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal to give himself up.
The high stakes drama unfolded just after 8am on Monday morning when a construction worker discovered the intruder, believed to be in his early 30s, inside the crane and contacted the authorities after he refused to come down.
IPSS Medical Rescue’s Richard Schouten confirmed the man had climbed up into the crane on Sunday afternoon where he apparently spent the night.
“We now know what difficulties we will encounter if we are ever faced with a situation where a crane operator has a medical emergency such as a heart attack while still inside the cabin,” Schouten said on Monday.
“Fortunately the police negotiator managed to convince him to open the trap door, which he was standing on the entire time, effectively preventing us from gaining access,” he said.
The incident was initially reported as a hostage situation because the man had told Schouten and members of the Empangeni SAPS Search and Rescue team that he was not alone, raising fears that the man had taken the crane driver hostage.
When he finally surrendered himself, however, it emerged that he was in fact alone.
Richards Bay municipal firefighters responded with a mobile crane, in case it became necessary to hoist emergency services up next to the cabin.
Spokeswoman for Richards Bay SAPS, Captain Debbie Ferreira, on Monday confirmed a case of trespassing and malicious damage to property had been opened as the man was not employed at the site.
The reason for the incident remains unclear at this stage.
– African News Agency
