A dramatic rescue of a man looking to commit suicide from Nanjing’s famed Yangtze River Bridge was caught on camera recently, as a motorcycle traffic policeman intervened to drag the man back from his potential fate in the cold waters below.
It was on 21 November that the dramatic rescue was captured by the bridge’s surveillance cameras. But it has taken until yesterday for local media to release the footage to the general public.
The footage, which can be seen via this link, begins with the scene of a man wandering on the bridge. He does not appear in any way suicidal. Then motorcycle traffic cop, Pan Jian, appears and passes the man by.
But then Pan’s police officer instinct kicks in. He looks over his right shoulder to see the man now scaling the bridge wall. Dismounting in a hurry, Pan has no time to stabilise his motorbike which promptly falls over as Pan jumps the railing to the bridge’s pavement.
Pan then throws his arms around the man who is now sitting on the edge of the bridge and likely milliseconds from throwing himself off. Other motorists then stop to assist, with one Good Samaritan taking the man on his way.
With his act, Pan has joined the growing list of people who have prevented others from hurling themselves into the waters of the Yangtze. But he has some way to go before he could claim the top spot. For that, Pan would need to take on Chen Si, who is estimated to have saved over 300 people from their suicide.
Chen was profiled in “Angel of Nanjing” by Frank Ferendo and Jordan Horowitz, a documentary which won 13 international awards in 2015. In the film, Nanjing’s Yangtze River Bridge co stars alongside Chen, as the world’s number 1 suicide location.
That said, the suicide rate in China has fallen quite dramatically in recent years. World Health Organisation figures reveal a suicide rate in the 1990s of 20 per 100,000 people, one of the highest in the world. Recently, the opposite became true, with a mean suicide rate in 2016 of 9.7.
Assisting in this trend was the Nanjing Brain Hospital, which established the Crisis Intervention Centre that provides psychological advice and support via its hotline on 83712977.
For non-Chinese speakers in need, English language help is at hand via Lifeline in Shanghai on 4008211215. The volunteer-based, non-profit organisation that provides a suicide-prevention helpline comes under the guidance of Lifeline Australia, founded in 1963.
