Durban – It took nearly two hours of negotiation by police and medics to coax a man out of a construction crane in Richards Bay on Monday morning after he had barricaded himself in and refused to come down.
This after he had climbed up nearly six storeys to the operator’s cabin of the crane on Sunday afternoon and made himself at home for the night.
He was discovered by construction workers arriving at work just after 8am Monday.
Initial reports indicated the incident was a hostage situation, although it later emerged that the man, believed to be in his early 30s, was alone.
SAPS members confirmed to reporters at the scene he had told them he had another man in the cabin with him, leading to fears he had taken the crane driver hostage.
He was reportedly incoherent and gave different reasons for being inside the crane.
Richards Bay SAPS spokeswoman Captain Debbie Ferreira could not confirm the reason for the man barricading himself inside the cabin.
“We have opened a case of trespassing and malicious damage to property and are busy taking statements from him,” she said on Monday.
She confirmed the man was not employed on the construction site.
A combined effort by IPSS Medical Rescue’s Richard Schouten, Empangeni SAPS Search and Rescue officers as well as Richards Bay municipal firefighters was co-ordinated on the ground to bring the man to safety.
“We now know what difficulties we will face 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,” said Schouten.
“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 spectacle drew a sizeable crowd, and Richards Bay trended on Twitter for most of on Monday.
The crane is situated on the construction site of a new medical centre next to Netcare The Bay Hospital in central Richards Bay.