Probe after man drowns during bid to f lee police

AN INVESTIGATION is under way after a man plunged to his death from a bridge during an arrest.

The police watchdog will look into the incident, which took place after officers intervened in an argument between the 24-yearold man and a woman on Kingston Bridge, South-West London, on Friday night.

Officers were attempting to arrest the man following an allegation of theft when he fell into the Thames.

Members of the Met’s Marine Policing Unit, National Police Air Service, London Fire Brigade and the RNLI rushed to the scene, but the man was pronounced dead when he was pulled from the water two hours later.

In a statement, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said: ‘Officers attended an altercation at around 10.30pm on Friday.

They made the decision to arrest the man who then entered the water. He had not been placed in handcuffs. The man was recovered from the water at around 12.30am and sadly pronounced dead at the scene.’

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said: ‘My thoughts, and those of the Metropolitan Police Service, are with the friends and family of the man who has sadly lost his life.

The Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards made an immediate referral to the IOPC.’

The IOPC is already investigating the death of another man, Oladeji Adeyemi Omishore, 41, who fell from Chelsea Bridge on June 4 after being Tasered three times by police officers.