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A policeman has saved the life of a crane driver who threatened to hang himself in the middle of a busy road Featured

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A policeman has saved the life of a crane driver who threatened to hang himself in the middle of a busy road
The Asian crane driver stopped his vehicle on Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Road in Dubai – blocking three lanes of traffic – and tied a rope attached to the crane around his neck.

He then threatened to raise himself up with the controls as hundreds of drivers looked on.

The man said he had been forced to take his own life as he had not been fully paid in a year.

He may have gone through with his threat had it not been for Corporal Yuarub Khalid, 23, who had just finished his shift at Al Barsha Police Station.

He was driving home to Fujairah when he spotted a huge traffic jam in the Sharjah direction, close to Global Village. When he realised what was happening, he got out of his car and spent two and a half hours talking the man down.

Khalid said: “He told me that he decided to commit suicide because he was desperate.

“He told me that his mother is sick and needed medical treatment, but that the company he works for had not given him his full salary in a long time. They were giving him small payments every month.

“The man told me they wouldn’t help. I was close and thought I could pull the controls from his hand, but I was afraid he might kill himself.”

The drama unfolded on Saturday at about 2.45pm. The crane driver kept threatening to kill himself, claiming that his firm was only paying him Dhs200 sporadically.

Khalid said: “Finally I managed to convince him that the police will help him and the law will ensure his rights.”

Dubai Police intend to pursue the firm’s owner to ensure the man’s full salary is paid.

But he will be charged with attempted suicide.

Khalid was critical of more than 350 people who gathered at the scene, many taking photos on their phones, as he negotiated.

General Khamis Mattar Al Muzaina, head of Dubai Police, said Khalid was “a young policeman who only recently joined us. He did a heroic job and saved a life, which is what we are dedicated to doing.”
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