[Courtesy of Daegu Seobu Fire Station]
A man in his 40s was stuck in the middle of a vertical ventilation passage at a 15-story apartment building for seven hours before being rescued. He was later tested positive for drugs in an investigation by police.
Firefighters received an emergency call on Sunday night from an apartment resident of in Daegu, some 230 kilometers (142 miles) southwest of Seoul, who was terrified by a strange voice coming out through the kitchen wall of her house on the 11th floor.
[Courtesy of Daegu Seobu Fire Station]
"Help! the strange voice had continuously cried out," the resident was quoted as saying.
After deploying a special rescue team, the firefighters found a man stuck in the building's vertical ventilation passage, which was 30 centimeters wide and 40 centimeters long. The topless man wearing a pair of slippers ripped out a large fan on top of the passage and crawled in.
Firefighters lowered him to the bottom floor with rope and tore down the kitchen wall to rescue him. Fortunately, he just suffered a few scratches.
The Santa Claus wannabe's strange journey did not end well because he kept saying gibberish such as "Someone chased me up to the roof" or "I hid in the passage to take shelter" when he was arrested for trespassing. A urine test showed he was under the influence of drugs for his venture and police would seek an arrest warrant to add drug charges.
Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
