Alistair Kleebauer, Senior reporter
Friday, September 21, 2012
9:31 AM
A 30-year-old man jumped off a bridge onto Eastern Avenue this morning but survived the fall.
Police, firefighters and ambulance staff were called to the bridge, at the junction with Barley Lane, at 11pm last night, where the man was threatening to jump.
He had crossed over the barrier and was hanging off the side of the bridge, which is about eight metres high, according to Steve Blundell, watch manager at Ilford fire station, who attended the scene.
Mr Blundell said: “We were standing by to assist the police.
“They were negotiating with the aim to get him down.”
The road had been closed from the Aldborough Road North junction to Whalebone Lane North junction.
At around 12.20am, the man jumped.
Mr Blundell believed he could have broken his leg and hand, but a London Ambulance Service spokesman said he was taken to the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, with back pain.
Mr Blundell said: “Considering the bridge is about eight metres high, it didn’t seem so bad, but how he is now, I don’t know.”
The man is in a stable condition in hospital according to a police spokesman.
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