High drama as worker rescued

DON’T look down . . . mountain rescue officer Mick Nield brings the worker to safety

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THIS is the moment a terrified maintenance worker was dramatically winched to safety after becoming trapped in a cradle 120ft in the air.

The Oldham Mountain Rescue Team joined fire crews at the new health centre after being alerted to the chaotic scene, next to the civic centre, at 12.35pm yesterday.

They arrived to see 20-year-old Vass Ahmati stranded in a maintenance cradle with nowhere to go. The drama unfolded after the worker’s lift locked itself in one position.

Passers-by watched anxiously as rescuers battled for an hour to bring the man to safety.

The rescue team accessed Mr Ahmati with ropes via the inside of the building on the eighth floor.

They secured him, then lowered him down to the ground using an aerial platform set up by firefighters. An ambulance was also on standby.

Miraculously, the worker escaped with a cut to his head, but was taken to hospital as a precaution.

Mountain rescue officer Mick Nield said: “The firefighters stabilised the situation and had raised the aerial platform which helped us to get up to the man and bring him down.

“I was confident I would get him because we’re always climbing up rocks during rescue operations but this time it was a building.

“What made life easier was that there were no injuries.”

Watch commander Mike Harris, from Chadderton fire service, added: “The man became trapped when the machinery on the cradle when wrong — stopping it from going anywhere.

“We secured him with safety ropes from the top and the main thing is he came down alive.”