Belfast City Centre sealed off, fears ‘agitated’ man would wreak havoc with huge industrial crane

Police sealed off a major section of Belfast city centre after an ‘agitated’ man scaled a huge crane and scared onlookers into thinking he would use it to wreak havoc on surrounding buildings.
By Philip Bradfield
Published 7th May 2020, 11:21 BST
Updated 7th May 2020, 13:08 BST
The arrow points to the 'agitated' man who was walking to and fro along the crane in Belfast city centre. The police cordon was so large the eye witness could not get any closer to take a better photo.The arrow points to the 'agitated' man who was walking to and fro along the crane in Belfast city centre. The police cordon was so large the eye witness could not get any closer to take a better photo.
The arrow points to the 'agitated' man who was walking to and fro along the crane in Belfast city centre. The police cordon was so large the eye witness could not get any closer to take a better photo.

It took the PSNI over two hours to talk the distressed man down, before he was arrested and charged with a number of offences.

The PSNI told the News Letter it responded to a report concerning a man having climbed an industrial crane in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast at around 5.50 pm on Wednesday evening, May 6.

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Police said emergency services attended the scene and the man was returned to safety at around 8pm.

The PSNI threw a wide cordon up around the crane for public safety, seen here on Great Victoria Street.The PSNI threw a wide cordon up around the crane for public safety, seen here on Great Victoria Street.
The PSNI threw a wide cordon up around the crane for public safety, seen here on Great Victoria Street.

A 31-year-old-man was arrested on suspicion of common assault, disorderly behaviour and breach of bail, and is now in police custody, police added.

A eye witness said he was walking home but when he got to the back of City Hall the police had cordoned the whole area off.

“Onlookers were discussing what was happening and they concluded that the cordon was so large that they must have been concerned about him taking control of the crane and doing some major damage to buildings and people in the area,” he said.

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“They were getting quite worried about how terrible it would be if he were able to take control of it.

“The cordon was so big I had to do a detour to the Grovenor Road to get home. It was a much bigger cordon than would have been necessary if they were just concerned about him falling off. It was a major disruption to the city centre.

“The crane was so high up you couldn’t really make him out but he was walking to and fro along the top of it. At one point he sat down on the concrete counterweights at the back. He did look pretty agitated. I have to say the whole incident left me a bit shaken.”

The eye witness tried to photograph the man on the crane but found it difficult because of the great height and because the cordon was keeping him so far away.

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Police had cordoned off Great Victoria Street and several other adjacent streets and at least two ambulances were at the scene, he added.

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service said it was called in just after 6pm and sent one Emergency crew, three Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) Officers and one Officer to the scene, but that nobody was taken to hospital.

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