Jayapura SAR Officer Dies While Preventing Suicide Attempt on a Tower

TheIndonesia.co - A search-and-rescue (SAR) officer from Jayapura, Papua, Tri Sudarno, passed away after falling from a mobile tower in West Sentani Sub-district while striving to prevent a suicide attempt by a resident scaling the structure.

"The late officer fell 15 meters while attempting to bring the victim down from the Telkomsel mobile tower," Jayapura SAR Office chief, Melkianus Kotta, stated here on Thursday, as quoted by Antara.

The officer died after receiving medical care at Youwari Regional Hospital.

The incident started after a report was received on Wednesday (March 13) morning from a resident informing the Jayapura SAR Office about a resident, Theopilus Yaboisembut, aged 20, who was seen scaling a mobile tower in an apparent suicide attempt.

The tower is owned by mobile operator Telkomsel and is located some 13.8 kilometers away from the Jayapura SAR Office.

Upon arriving at the mobile tower and reaching the victim, SAR officers faced difficulties in evacuating the victim, as he kept resisting their attempts. Initially, the team succeeded in bringing the victim to descend the 50-meter tower.

However, the victim continued to resist the team's efforts to take him down, forcing Sudarno to hold onto the tower and request assistance from other personnel who had yet to descend the tower.

Kotta said during that time, the victim pushed his body away from the tower, thereby prompting Sudarno to release his hold on the tower in a bid to save the victim.

"In the end, the victim and the late officer fell 15 meters to the ground from the tower," the Jayapura SAR Office head stated.

Kotta said that Sudarno had been buried on Thursday at a local cemetery. Meanwhile, Yaboisembut survived the fall and is currently under medical care at Youwari Regional Hospital, he added.