Two hours to save a man stuck between walls in Saigon

More than 20 police officers raced against time, simultaneously chiseling the wall and reinforcing the house to prevent collapse to rescue the injured man trapped in a gap less than 30 cm wide.

At around 10pm yesterday, Mr. Tran Van Tu, 74 years old, was watching TV in a two-story house on Xom Chieu Street, District 4, when he heard a loud noise on the corrugated iron roof. Then, he heard a sound coming from the wall. He went up to the fourth floor of the house next door and shined a flashlight to see a man over 40 years old, over 1.6 m tall, weighing about 60 kg stuck in a wall gap just wider than a hand span.

The victim was trapped between the walls of four houses. Photo: Minh Bang — The victim was trapped between the walls of four houses. Photo: *Minh Bang*

The victim was lying face up, arms outstretched, his body covered in scratches, struggling between two walls with many rough and uneven cement patches. Before falling from a height of about 10 meters into a 30 cm wide gap in the wall, some people saw the victim climb onto the roof of a 4-story building and jump down to Mr. Tu's house.

"I don't understand how he could squeeze through a gap the size of a hand's span in the wall," Mr. Tu said, adding that at first people tried to get the victim out but to no avail.

A few minutes later, five police officers from District 4 arrived at the scene and lowered a rope from the roof, but the victim did not grab the rope. The gap was too narrow, so they could not climb down to bring the person up. Worried that if they continued to expand the wall, it would affect the structure and cause the house to collapse, the police asked for help from the professional rescue team of the Ho Chi Minh City Fire Prevention and Fighting Police Department.

Two hours to save a man stuck between walls in Saigon — The victim was stuck in a narrow wall gap. Video: *Minh Bang*

More than 30 minutes later, Sergeant Tran Thien Hieu, 24, and more than a dozen teammates arrived to assist. To prevent the wall from collapsing when the dam was opened to widen the gap, the police used many 1-1.2 meter long iron bars to support the load. The gap in the wall where the victim was trapped was located near the intersection where four houses met, so they calculated to choose the corner with the largest gap between the toilets of two adjacent houses to get the person out.

While breaking the wall, Mr. Hieu reassured the victim, used his hands and a blanket to cover his face and body to prevent the bricks and stones from hitting him while he continued to scream due to the wound that was deep into his skin. At this time, the rescue team faced a situation where the victim was injured and lost blood, which could be life-threatening, but they could not speed up the wall demolition because they were worried that the crack would spread and cause a collapse.

Rescuers used wall-chiseling equipment to get the victim out. Photo: Minh Bang — Rescuers used wall-chiseling equipment to get the victim out. Photo: *Minh Bang*

After an hour and a half, the rescue team had widened the gap in the wall enough for the victim to crawl out. At this point, the man was exhausted, gasping for breath but losing his composure, continuously cursing "I don't believe you guys, don't touch me". Meanwhile, the gap in the wall was too small and rough, making it impossible for the team to enter and pull the person out.

Seeing that the man was hallucinating, Lieutenant Colonel Hoang Huu Nam, the commander of the rescue team, called out to ask for his name and family to create intimacy. After that, the rescue team gave him water and continuously persuaded the trapped man to cooperate. After more than 30 minutes, the man gradually moved so that the soldiers could pull him out. The victim suffered multiple injuries, with scratches on his arms, legs, abdomen and back, and was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment.

According to the police, this person had just been released from prison and was living on the streets. He tested positive for drugs.

Incidents of people being trapped in deep walls have occurred in Ho Chi Minh City. In June, District 10 police rescued a woman while searching for a cat that had fallen from the top floor of a house on Ngo Quyen Street, stuck in a wall gap more than 20 meters deep and about 30 centimeters wide.

Dinh Van

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