A man was crushed to death by a retractable urinal he was working on in central London.
emergency services scrambled charing cross A man was “severely injured” after being trapped underground on a West End road just after 1pm on Friday.
After dozens of rescues, he was finally rescued around 3:40 p.m. Firefighter It took over two and a half hours to free him, eventually using a winch to pry open the urinal.
At around 4:40pm, Scotland Yard said:
“His next of kin have been informed.
“A cordon remains in place.”
The public is requested to “avoid the area if possible”.
A spokesman for the London Fire Brigade said: “Firefighters have been called to a person stranded on Charing Cross Road in central London.
“A man was trapped below street level under a hydraulic urinal. Firefighters, working with partner agencies, used a winch to free him.
“He was taken to the London Ambulance Service and sadly pronounced dead at the scene.”
The incident took place at Cambridge Circus, the intersection of Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue, in the heart of London’s very popular theater district.
The urinals were meters away from the Palace Theater, now home of the award-winning play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
Witnesses reported seeing an ambulance land in Trafalgar Square, while others said they conducted a “massive emergency response” in the area.
A winch was found at the scene around 3:00 p.m., and paramedics used it to lift the urinal off the ground.
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said:
“We sent many resources to the scene, including ambulance crews, Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) members, tactical response force members, and medics in rapid response vehicles. We also dispatched an air ambulance from London.
“Sadly, despite the crew’s best efforts, a man was confirmed dead at the scene.”
Telescoping urinals were introduced to central London over a decade agoas an innovative way to provide late-night revelers with a place to urinate.
They are designed to fall to the ground during the day and resemble manhole covers, but rise from the ground at night, providing valuable extra cover when the pub begins to empty.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/man-crushed-telescopic-urinal-cambridge-circus-charing-cross-road-london-west-end-b1056167.html Cambridge Circus: Worker crushed to death in ‘telescopic urinal’ yard at Harry Potter Theater