Police negotiators persuaded a suicidal teacher to come down from the roof of a school in Tseung Kwan O after a three-hour standoff yesterday afternoon.
Emergency crews were sent to Tung Wah Group of Hospitals' Lui Yun Choy Memorial College, in Yuk Nga Lane, shortly before 2pm, when the male teacher, who is in his 40s, phoned a female colleague to say he was going to jump to his death.
The woman called emergency services after checking the roof of the seven-storey building and seeing him standing on a ledge, according to police.
Firefighters inflated an air cushion below and police negotiators were called in when he refused to return inside the building.
'He ordered us not to get close to him. He claimed that he would have felt unwell and fallen off the building if we approached him,' said an officer from Tseung Kwan O Fire Station, in Po Lam Road.
The officer said police negotiators kept a distance of six to seven metres from the teacher during the standoff. However, the teacher did accept a glass of water handed to him by rescuers.