Man Rescued Following Attempt to Jump off Kew Bridge

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Police, Fire Brigade, RNLI and helicopter involved in operation

A man was rescued last night (2 August) by emergency services after attempting to jump off Kew Bridge.

The operation involved a police helicopter and officers from both local forces and the Marine Policing Unit, as well as the ambulance service and a crew from Richmond fire station.

The police were called just before 10pm to a report of man, described as in his twenties, stuck in a ladder.

Residents heard a police helicopter circle above Kew Bridge for a number of hours while the man was lowered in a winch to a lifeboat on the Thames by the fire brigade.

David Clarke of the RNLI, said: "After an extensive search in the Kew area, the police helicopter was involved in the search and after almost an hour the man was found hiding behind the framework of the navigational lights on the up-river side of Kew Bridge.

"The police tried to get him back off the parapet and that's when the fire brigade rescue team took over.

"The man was lowered into the lifeboat where a police officer took the person in to question."

A police spokesman said, “He was then taken to hospital and detained under the Mental Health Act.”

There was a previous incident in October when the body of an elderly man was recovered near Kew Bridge.

August 3, 2015