Man plunges from top floor of Edinburgh's sheriff court before landing on marble floor
A man has been left seriously injured after he fell 40 feet from the top floor of the capital's sheriff court.
The man, believed to be in his early 20s, landed on the court building's marble floor after apparently climbing over a barrier on the sixth floor and falling to the ground.
Police officers and court staff rushed to the injured man's aid and members of the public were immediately evacuated from the area following the incident around 9.40am today.
Two ambulances raced to the scene and paramedics treated the man within the building before rushing him to the city's royal infirmary. It is believed the man suffered two broken ankles and a fractured pelvis following the horror fall.
One witness said: "I saw the guy on the sixth floor just before he fell. I was heading to the canteen when I overheard another man shout out 'what are you doing?'.
"The next thing the young guy just started climbing over the barrier and then he disappeared from my view. I couldn't bear to look down but there was a lot of screaming and commotion on the ground level. How he survived that is anyone's guess as it's a 40 foot drop. I was told he landed on his feet and has two broken ankles.
"The paramedics arrived very quickly to attend to him but he was screaming in pain when they moved him into the ambulance."
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A second witness said : "I saw the guy sitting on a bench outside court room three and he seemed to be mumbling to himself. Five minutes later he landed about ten feet away from me after falling from the upper floor - I've never seen anything like that in my life.
"He was in a lot of pain and incredibly there wasn't a drop of blood as he had landed on his feet. It could have been so much worse and he's very, very lucky to have survived that fall."
A Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service spokesperson said: "The Court was temporarily closed this morning to allow access and movement for emergency services to deal with an incident.
"One person has been taken to hospital. The Court re-opened a short while before 11am."
A spokesperson for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: "We received a call today to attend an incident at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
"We dispatched two ambulances to the scene and transported one male patient to New Edinburgh Royal Infirmary."
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