Gulf Today

Child dangling from 13th floor rescued in Sharjah

The child clung to the window for 15 minutes, hanging from the 13th floor of a residentia­l tower in Taawun area of Sharjah

- Mahmoud Muhsen, Staff Reporter

SHARJAH: Major General Saif Al Zari Al Shamsi, Commander-in-chief of Sharjah Police, honoured an Arab resident and an Asian building guard for their valour in rescuing a 4-year-old Arab child, before falling from the window of his parents’ house.

The child clung to the window for 15 minutes, hanging from the 13th floor of a residentia­l tower in Taawun area.

Al Shamsi praised the honourees’ good behavior and promptitud­e, which saved the child, by seeking help from the police while exerting strenuous atempts to rescue the child until they were finally able to catch him and deal profession­ally with the situation to prevent him from falling before the arrival of the competent teams.

The responsibi­lity of all members of society would necessitat­e them to co-operate with the police and to share roles for the stability of the society and protection of its members, he said, stressing the keenness of the Sharjah Police to honor those who co-operate with them for their positive and effective role in enhancing the society’s security and safety.

Al Khaleej met Adel Abdul Hafeez, a resident of the tower, who helped rescue the child in co-operation with the building guard. He said: “Around 8:00am on Tuesday and as soon as I returned home ater taking my children to school, I noticed a group of maintenanc­e workers in the vicinity of the residentia­l tower, crying out and pointing towards the upper floors. When I looked up, I saw a child screaming loudly while clinging to the front window of an apartment on the 13th floor.”

“I asked my wife to call the police and in the meantime I rushed towards the entrance to the tower to search for the building guard and ask him for help. I told him to call the child’s father to inform him how dangerous the situation was and how it was necessary to break the door to rescue the child, especially since he was let alone in the apartment and it was difficult to rescue from the outside. The building guard and I then broke the door using the maintenanc­e workers’ tools, and as soon as the door was opened, I went straight to the glass window to rescue the child,” he added.

“Although there was no sofa or the like near the window for the child to reach the window, he was able to reach a point where it was very difficult to be rescued, especially since the extent of opening the window was limited. Communicat­ing with the child’s parents, breaking the door and reaching the child took approximat­ely 15 minutes, during which the child clung to the windowsill with his fingertips.”

Major General Saif Al Zari Al Shamsi, Commanderi­n-chief of Sharjah Police, honoured an Arab resident and an Asian building guard for their valour in rescuing a 4-year-old Arab child, before falling from the window of his parents’ house. The child clung to the window for 15 minutes, hanging from the 13th floor of a residentia­l tower in Taawun area.

Al Shamsi praised the honourees’ good behaviour and promptitud­e, which saved the child, by seeking help from the police while exerting strenuous atempts to rescue the child until they were finally able to catch him and deal profession­ally with the situation to prevent him from falling before the arrival of the competent teams.

The responsibi­lity of all members of society would necessitat­e them to co-operate with the police and to share roles for the stability of the society and protection of its members, he said, stressing the keenness of the Sharjah Police to honour those who co-operate with them for their positive and effective role in enhancing the society’s security and safety.

Al Khaleej met Adel Abdul Hafeez, a resident of the tower, who helped rescue the child in co-operation with the building guard. He said: “Around 8am last Tuesday and as soon as I returned home ater taking my children to school, I noticed a group of maintenanc­e workers in the vicinity of the residentia­l tower, crying out and pointing towards the upper floors. When I looked up, I saw a child screaming loudly while clinging to the front window of an apartment on the 13th floor.”

“I asked my wife to call the police and in the meantime I rushed towards the entrance to the tower to search for the building guard and ask him for help. I told him to call the child’s father to inform him how dangerous the situation was and how it was necessary to break the door to rescue the child, especially since he was let alone in the apartment and it was difficult to rescue from the outside. The building guard and I then broke the door using the maintenanc­e workers’ tools, and as soon as the door was opened, I went straight to the glass window to rescue the child,” he added. “Although there was no sofa or the like near the window for the child to reach the window, he was able to reach a point where it was very difficult to be rescued, especially since the extent of opening the window was limited. Communicat­ing with the child’s parents, breaking the door and reaching the child took approximat­ely 15 minutes, during which the child clung to the windowsill with his fingertips.

A neighbour tried to help the child from outside by pushing him upwards from a side window but he was almost about to fall and consequent­ly I had to grip the child’s hand and waist, while asking the building guard to push the window as hard as possible for me to lit the child.

Although the situation was difficult, the small size of the 4-year-old child enabled us to lit and rescue him. Later, the police, civil defence and national ambulance teams moved to the apartment in the presence of the child’s mother to complete the procedures,” he said.

Mohammed Rahmatulla­h, the building guard, told Al Khaleej: “As soon as I knew about the child’s situation, I soon realised where he was and what apartment he belonged to and knew that his mother was not at home at the time. I requested the maintenanc­e workers to go to my room and bring all bed covers and everything that might protect the child if he fell. In the meantime, I communicat­ed with the child’s father and told him that a tower resident wanted to tell him that it was necessary to break the door of the apartment to rescue the child.

Ater entering the apartment with the help of a tower resident, my prime concern was to open or break the window and that was what I did to be able to rescue the child.”

In turn, Sharjah Police completed the other procedures of identifyin­g the people who rescued the child as well as his parents by asking them to visit the Buhairah Comprehens­ive Police Station for complete investigat­ions and referring the file of the incident to the competent authoritie­s.

 ?? ?? ±
Saif Al Zari Al Shamsi praised the honourees’ good behaviour and promptitud­e, which saved the child.
± Saif Al Zari Al Shamsi praised the honourees’ good behaviour and promptitud­e, which saved the child.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Bahrain