Fifty-year-old Chen Qianqiang walked onto the Yangtze River
Bridge in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province, at 8:00 AM and began his
regular patrol.
His job is to detect suicide attempts and do his best to stop
them.
At around 3:00 on the afternoon of Dec. 3, on only his third day
on the job, he heard someone shout, "Chen, somebody is trying to
jump off the bridge." Rushing to the southern bridgehead, he saw a
person bending over the rail, teetering. He grabbed the person from
behind, and dragged her back.
With the aid of some passersby, Chen helped the woman who wanted
to commit suicide to a room at the bridgehead and offered her a cup
of warm water. Then he started a conversation. About half an hour
later, the woman said, "I'd like to go back home."
Chen helped the woman aboard a bus heading downtown. "I saved a
life, it's a wonderful feeling," he said joyfully.
About four hundred suicide attempts are made at the bridge every
year. Provincial police have established a special rescue team to
stop the attempts.
"The team is funded by the provincial police. So far four men
have been recruited," said a police spokesman. Besides Chen, the
other three rescuers are Shi Wei, Wang Mantang and Guoqiang.
(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2006)