A man has been rescued after he was stuck in a storm water drain in Brisbane for 36 hours as police investigate whether he is connected to an earlier crime.
Officers were in pursuit of a Ford Falcon, which hit a dead end in Kangaroo Point about 4am on Sunday.
In an effort to avoid capture, the driver struck the patrol car but was quickly stopped when it crashed into an SUV.
The driver left the car and fled the scene.
Hours later, James Lingwood was on his morning run when he stopped to investigate loud noises coming from a drain.
He found a man, knee-deep in the water, who waved him away saying he was fine.
“He’s going, ‘no bro, I’m good’,” Lingwood told 9News.
Lingwood checked the drain the following day and was shocked to see the man still inside.
“I could hear, ‘ahh, ahh, ahh’, like somebody kind of in distress and I thought, ‘oh my god, he’s still there, I’d better ring triple zero’,” he said.
Emergency services rescued the 38-year-old man, who was taken to hospital with injuries.
The man claimed he had been stuck for 36 hours after trying to retrieve a lost phone.
Lingwood said he had seen the man on his phone talking to somebody.
Acting Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said he was surprised and amazed, confirming they would investigate whether the man’s underground ordeal had anything to do with the dangerous driving case.
“Let’s let the investigation run its course and work out where it goes from there,” he said.
