Dramatic bell tower rescue at Sydney cathedral

A volunteer bell-ringer was the subject of a delicate rescue operation in the bell tower in Sydney’s St Mary’s Catholic cathedral last Thursday.

The 72-year-old man had climbed more than 110 stairs to be at evening bell-ringing practice.

But he had a heart attack and collapsed.

After CPR from fellow bell-ringers, he was revived by paramedics.

Emergency workers then had to devise a way to lower him about 60 metres to the ground.

They loaded the man on to a rescue stretcher, then opened the central tower’s trapdoor, which had not been opened in about 30 years, and paramedics abseiled from the roof with the man.

The man was in a stable condition in St James’s Hospital the following day.

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