Add Category
Updated
A man who climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge has been safely taken into police custody, with roads through central Sydney slowly returning to normal after the police operation caused traffic mayhem during the morning rush.
Key points:
- Some people were stuck in traffic for three hours
- The man climbed up the bridge about 4:30am today and was taken into police custody around 9:30am
- At one stage, all northbound lanes were closed to traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge
Detective Inspector John Maricic said the man rode a bicycle onto Lane 1 of the bridge, got off his bike, scaled the fence of the rail corridor and climbed a pylon up onto the beams.
The man, 43, was over a number of road lanes, which required the closure of roads on the bridge, Detective Inspector Maricic said.
"[It was] incredibly dangerous," he said.
"I was seriously concerned for the travelling public travelling underneath him. I did not want him to fall and come into contact with an innocent member of the public.
"The police negotiation unit were called in and engaged with him for a number of hours … and the male agreed to leave the pylons of the Harbour Bridge."
If you or anyone you know needs help:
Police successfully managed to bring the man down around 9:30am after a stand-off that lasted nearly five hours. He was known to police.
The man has "significant mental health issues" and his motive was a "based on a family issue", Detective Inspector Maricic said.
Police said the man was from Woolloomooloo and expected charges would be laid today.
NSW Ambulance had been taken to St Vincent's Hospital in a stable condition.
Traffic returning to normal
All lanes on the bridge reopened just after 10:00am, and traffic remained badly congested around the Sydney CBD until the late morning.
Multiple northbound and southbound lanes of the bridge were closed during the hours-long police operation.
Traffic was crawling on the city's major road arteries during police negotiations with the man, with the road chaos easing around 11:00am.
Live Traffic NSW reported that traffic had been banked up for southbound commuters all the way to North Ryde — 20 kilometres north-west of the city on the M2 — during the rush hours.
A knock-on from the Harbour Bridge closures also affected the Anzac Bridge, causing the arterial Victoria Road to be backed up for more than 10 kilometres leading into the smaller bridge.
The City-West Link had traffic issues all the way to Haberfield and the Eastern Distributor was experiencing some delays.
Commuter Zack Jackson said he had been stuck in the gridlock all morning.
"I've been waiting three hours, I've lost half my day's work," he said.
"If I could, I'd do a U-turn and go home but I can't. I've got customers ringing me up and busting me — it's very frustrating."
'We can't wrap bridge in barbed wire'
Trains were not affected by the operation.
Buses were delayed by up to 70 minutes, and several buses were stopping their trips at train stations on the north shore to allow passengers to catch the train.
The Roads Minister said it was difficult to stop people from accessing the bridge.
"Unless you are prepared to wrap the whole bridge in barbed wire, then there is a chance that something like this might happen," Ms Pavey said.
Ms Pavey said she empathised with commuters.
"It's not an easy day — it's not a good day for the Sydney commuter," she said.
Topics: emergency-incidents, traffic-offences, sydney-2000, north-sydney-2060
First posted