VIC: Man rescued from beneath pier

AAP General News (Australia)
08-24-1999
VIC: Man rescued from beneath pier

MELBOURNE, Aug 24 AAP - Police and firefighters saved the life of a man who was found
barely clinging to a grille underneath a pier on Port Phillip Bay early today.

A fisherman alerted police around 2.45am that a man was trapped in the water under the
Kerferd Road Pier at inner-suburban Albert Park.

Two police officers dived into the freezing water to help support the man, who was just
holding on to a metal grille under the pier, while firefighters used a rope to secure him.

The man was pulled out, with the help of a lifebuoy, about half an hour later.

Police believe the man had been in the water for some time.

Chief Inspector Ted Hart of region one said without the efforts of the two officers who
jumped into the water, the man would almost certainly have drowned.

The man, believed to be aged in his 30s, was taken to the Alfred Hospital suffering from
the effects of hypothermia.

Police had not been able to interview him yet and it was unclear how he came to be in the
water, a spokesman said.

AAP jlw/bwl

KEYWORD: PIER

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