A member of the public and a police officer have been praised for the heroic rescue of a man who tried to jump into the fast-flowing River Tay yesterday.
Lee Guthrie, 34, and the officer caught the man by the arms and clung on to him for several minutes as he dangled 30 feet above the icy water in Perth.
The man had appeared in the dock at Perth Sheriff Court moments earlier in a failed attempt to have bail conditions changed in a pending case.
He launched a furious tirade at the sheriff before fleeing from the court building and running across the road towards the water.
Mr Guthrie, who was outside the front of the court at the time, and the court police officer were alerted by him shouting about what he planned to do.
The self-employed joiner – who will be nominated for a police award – said: “I saw the guy running out the door and going straight across the road.
“He started running towards the wall, saying he was going to jump in and that he had had enough of life.
“I just saw him going and realised what he was going to do. I thought ‘oh my God, he’s going to kill himself.
“I just acted out of instinct I suppose and ran after him. Thankfully the police officer heard him as well and got there too.
“As the guy jumped over the wall we got there just in time to grab him by the arms and stop him from falling in the water.
“I’m not sure how to put this, but he was quite a heavy guy and we were really struggling to hang on to him.
“He was still saying he had had enough and that the courts and the police had screwed his life up, so he didn’t want to live any more.
“We must have held onto him for five or 10 minutes at least. I had a good hold of him but we were both really starting to struggle.
“If he had gone in the water he would have been gone. Thankfully, somebody else arrived and we managed to get him back over the wall.
“I’m a bit shaken up by the whole thing.”
The man, who is not thought to have suffered any injuries, was taken away by police to be charged in relation to the incident.
The officer, who asked not to be named, praised Mr Guthrie and said there was no doubt his quick-thinking and selfless action had helped to save the man’s life.
He said he would be putting Mr Guthrie, from Perth, forward for a police award and added that he believed the man had been within seconds of ending up in the water.
The officer said: “I heard him as he left the court so I followed him out and Mr Guthrie ran over as we realised he was going over the wall.
“He wasn’t helping himself back up at all when we had a hold of him and I was at the point where I thought I was about to lose my grip of him.
“Mr Guthrie did so well to keep hold of him and there’s no doubt that without him the outcome would have been tragic.”
A court worker, who witnessed the culmination of the incident, said: “What the officer and the other man did was genuinely heroic.
“They found the strength to hang onto him even though he was a pretty big guy and they have definitely saved his life. They should both get commendations.”
