Rescue

Man Rescued From Seattle's Space Needle

Feb. 28, 2004

A man who apparently wiggled through gaps in safety fencing threatened to jump from the landmark Space Needle on but was talked back to safety after three hours.

SEATTLE (AP) -- A man who apparently wiggled through gaps in safety fencing threatened to jump from the landmark Space Needle on Friday but was talked back to safety after three hours.

The man alternately walked and sat on the outer ring of the observation deck - 520 feet above the ground - while police negotiators sat on the inner ring, talking to him.

He finally agreed to put on a safety harness, and a fire department rescue team helped him crawl back along a support beam, police said.

The man, believed to be from Seattle and about 30 years old, apparently squeezed through approximately 5-inch gaps in horizontal wire fencing that rings the deck, police said.

He was taken to a medical center for evaluation.

A call for comment to a Space Needle Corp. spokeswoman was not immediately returned Friday evening.

The landmark, on the Seattle Center grounds, was built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair.