Everyday heroes: Rescuers in Oman save life after two hour chat

Energy Saturday 23/September/2017 21:26 PM
By: Times News Service
Everyday heroes: Rescuers in Oman save life after two hour chat

Muscat: An Indian expat who sparked a massive rescue operation after threatening to jump from a building, had only arrived in Oman seven days before and was said to be depressed because he could not find work, according to his friends and neighbours.
A video of the rescue, in which the man jumps into the cradle of a rescue crane and hugs a firefighter, has gone viral on social media after it was released by the Public Authority for Civil Defence and Ambulance (PACDA). A large crowd gathered in the street, in Al Khuwair, to watch as rescuers spent two hours trying to talk the man out of jumping.
He had locked himself in an apartment, smashed a window and thrown the apartment key over the balcony.
Rescuers talked to the man, from the Indian state of Kerala, via a female Indian neighbour, and persuaded him to end his suicide bid.
He was rescued by PACDA, and as he jumped into the cradle of the rescue crane, a cheer went up from the crowd below. A statement from PACDA read, “Rescue teams and Royal Oman Police in Muscat managed to thwart an individual’s attempt to commit suicide from the roof of a building in Al Khuwair.”
Further, Julanda Al Baluchi, Assistant Director of the Rescue Department in Civil Defence, said. “After the man was rescued by Civil Defence, he was taken to the Baushar police station to question him and to carry out procedures.
“The rescue team consists of rescuers, cranes and cars,” Baluchi said.
A PACDA spokesman noted, “He wasn’t Omani, and it was difficult to communicate with him. That’s why we asked his Asian neighbour to translate everything for us, and we kept on negotiating with him for quite some time.”
Residents of the building, however, described the man as a 25-year-old who arrived in Oman about one week ago and was staying with relatives in the apartment.
“We don’t know what prompted him to take this step, but we know that he was looking for a job in Oman,” a neighbour said.
It was around 10.20 on Wednesday night that he broke open one of the windows and tried to jump from a small balcony. “Then we immediately informed the Royal Oman Police,” another resident said.