Dubai: A police search and rescue crew extricated a woman who was found unconscious and wedged at the bottom of a residential building’s air well in Al Rigga.
Police were at a loss to explain how the woman ended up in the highly cramped space but said they are investigating the unusual incident while the rescued woman recovers in hospital.
The air well in question is a common interior design feature in older multi-storey buildings throughout the UAE to allow sunlight and fresh air into small windows.
The 32-year-old Asian woman fell into the shaft from a small window on the third floor in the early hours of Friday morning, police said.
Colonel Ahmad Atik Bu Ruqaiba, deputy director of the search and rescue department at Dubai Police, told Gulf News that the team received an emergency call around 4am and reached the scene within minutes.
“She was unconscious inside the shaft when we reached the building. We managed to rescue her using a special stretcher and ropes. She was suffering from serious injuries to her back and her leg was broken,” Col. Bu Ruqaiba said.
The rescue crew managed to wake her up and comfort her about her condition and then put a plan into action to extract her from the small, narrow shaft.
“It was a hard mission as the shaft was small and it hardly fit for an adult. She was suffering serious injuries in her back and broke her leg. We used a stretcher — only used in rescue operations on mountains — and managed to rescue her,” he said.
Police used ropes and stretcher to heft her body to a window on the first floor from which they pulled her to safety.
“The hard thing was to tie her on the stretcher without affecting her injuries despite the small space we worked in. A rescue member climbed down the shaft to reach her and used all his skills to extract her. Ultimately, we saved her life,” Col. Bu Ruqaiba said.
