A naked man climbed to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge, attached multiple flags, and then plunged into the East River Sunday afternoon. Somehow, the 44-year-old survived the jump and was listed in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital.
According to the New York Post, the man scaled the north tower on the Manhattan side before taking off his clothes and affixing the flags. NYPD Emergency Services Unit officers tried to persuade him to surrender, but he ultimately jumped from the bridge into the river.
The NYPD Harbor Unit pulled him from the East River and brought him in for medical treatment. The episode comes less than a month after officers rescued a woman from the Brooklyn Bridge after she threatened to jump, a dramatic July incident documented by CBS News.
Flags Add Another Strange Chapter To Bridge History
The writing on the flags was not immediately clear, and police had not identified the man as of the initial report. The New York Post also reported that video showed him surviving the fall, though the circumstances behind the bizarre display remained unclear.
The Brooklyn Bridge has seen flag-related security breaches before. In 2014, white flags appeared atop the bridge's towers after climbers bypassed security, prompting an investigation that ABC News described as a serious public-safety embarrassment for the city.
