VIDEO UPDATE: ‘Claustrophobic’ man stuck in Horsham lift expresses gratitude

A ‘claustrophobic’ man who was trapped in a lift for more than two hours has expressed his gratitude towards the firefighters who freed him.
By The Newsroom
Published 25th Apr 2013, 14:48 BST
Forum Lift 2 (jasmin martin).Forum Lift 2 (jasmin martin).
Forum Lift 2 (jasmin martin).

Zeno Messis, 47, Horsham, was released from the lift at around 3:18pm.

He said: “I’d like to say thank you very much to the fire department that got me out.

“I’m very grateful and can’t express my gratitude enough.”

Forum Lift 2 (jasmin martin).Forum Lift 2 (jasmin martin).
Forum Lift 2 (jasmin martin).
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A crew from West Sussex Fire and Rescue arrived in the Forum, Horsham, after the man became stuck in a glass lift at around 1pm.

Eyewitnesses say they heard a loud bang before a glass panel shattered which automatically stopped the elevator.

Firefighter Steve Blackaby said a rescue of this kind would normally take 15 to 20 minutes, but the manual override system had been vandalised.

As a result the service’s technical rescue team were dispatched and a lift engineer arrived eventually allowing the lift to line up with the doors and Mr Messis walked out unharmed.

Full story in next week’s paper.