/ 26 December 2008

Men climb tower to be ‘closer to Jesus’

Two men were rescued from a 50m radio tower in Lenasia on Thursday, after they climbed up to be ”closer to Jesus” on Christmas day, paramedics said.

”When we arrived at the radio tower at 7:30am, we found two men aged 28, and 30, sitting on the tower from the night before for almost 20 hours with no water or food,” said ER24 spokesperson Werner Vermaak.

”A bystander who spotted the men sitting on the tower, alerted police and emergency services who then arrived at the scene and tried to persuade the men to climb down.”

He said after the men refused to climb down, paramedics and members of the fire department climbed up the tower to speak to them.

They then found that one of the men had spread salt along the tower’s ladder, in order to ”protect them”.

”After two hours of negotiating, the men decided to climb down willingly with the assistance of the paramedics and rescue workers … a sky lift was used to lower them down to the ground.”

Once the men were lowered to the ground they were assessed by paramedics. The men declined any transportation or hospital treatment and were taken into police custody. – Sapa