Georgian threatens Graz crane jump
A Georgian threatened to jump off a crane in the city centre of Graz over unpaid social subsidies today (Weds).The 46-year-old told police he would commit suicide if Styrian officials did not pay up allegedly overdue benefits.Police closed down Andreas Hofer Square, and chief negotiator Eduard Hamedl was lifted up on a platform to speak to the man clinging onto the 54-metre high construction site crane.Fire-fighters had already spread a rescue net before the man eventually agreed to climb down.Authorities have not said whether the man was the same person who tried to jump from the same crane last November when a Georgian threatened to end his life when his wife suffered a miscarriage after she was wrongly accused of theft.The man involved in last yearÂ’s incident had previously twice threatened to hurl himself from building site scaffoldings.