I FEEL DRAINED
After 3 days down a sewer, trekking 6 miles... Manhole ‘fall’ riddle
MYSTERY last night surrounded how a man spent three days trapped in a sewer network before he was freed by police.
The unnamed victim claims he fell down a manhole and staggered through pipelines for up to six miles trying to find a way out.
The 48-year-old was only rescued after workers heard anguished cries for help coming from under a manhole cover in the middle of a road. As officers and passers-by pulled him to safety, the first thing he said was: “Does anyone have a fag?”
Witness Ian Swann said: “I walked to one side of the road with the police and we could hear, ‘Help, help’.
“It was then that we realised it was coming from below. We got some crowbars and got him out.
“He just wanted a fag and he wouldn’t talk to anyone until they gave him one.”
The man was treated by paramedics at the scene before being taken to hospital with foot injuries.
He told police he had fallen into sewers in Barking, east London, and staggered six miles to the street in Romford, Essex, where he was found.
But Thames Water disputed ® his claim after a check showed there were no broken manhole covers in the area that he could have fallen though.
A spokeswoman for the firm said it was likely that the man had entered the sewerage system by climbing over a fence and through a rainwater outfall on a new housing estate less than a mile away.
The pipe carries surface water to the nearby River Rom, which means he was not in a foul sewer carrying waste from toilets.
The spokeswoman added: “This man had a lucky escape. Entering a sewer is clearly very dangerous and not something anyone should attempt to do.”