Man Survives 8-Story Fall Following Police Operation
A 34-year-old man ended up in hospital in serious condition on Monday after falling from the eighth floor of a Tallinn apartment building while on the run from police.
Police in the city's Lasnamäe district, where the incident occurred, began an operation on Monday morning after receiving a call that the man had assaulted his wife in front of a supermarket, beating and threatening to kill her. The man, who the victim said was carrying a grenade, fled before police arrived.
Police used a bomb disposal robot when searching the man's apartment and the nearby apartments of his relatives. Neighbors were evacuated while police rapid response units, ambulance crews and negotiators were put on stand-by.
The police then arrived at the apartment of a female friend of the man when they heard screams coming from inside. Members of a response unit broke down the door only to see the suspect dangling outside the eighth floor window while the woman was trying to pull him back inside. At that moment, the man lost his grip and fell.
The grenade, which the accused man had buried, turned out to be a fake.
In the beginning of September, three men were injured in a grenade attack in the same district of Tallinn, while in February, a man who was locked in his apartment by his wife fell from the eighth floor while attempting to climb down, but was relatively unharmed. That incident happened on the same street as Monday's fall.