UP to press time, police were looking to ascertain the identity of a woman of East Indian ancestry who jumped to her death from the Demerara Harbour Bridge yesterday, even as persons using the bridge raised an alarm and alerted bridge security, who quickly mobilised and, within a short space of time, recovered her body from the river.

The woman was reportedly accessing the pedestrian facility along the bridge when she took off her slippers, placed her umbrella down, and took the plunge into the Demerara River.

The Guyana Chronicle, the first news medium on the scene, arrived to find the woman’s body already in a Demerara Harbour Bridge boat that is used to conduct maintenance on the structure. The fair-skinned woman, who appeared to be in her late twenties, was clad in a red top and blue jeans, and her hair was combed into a bun. Her body bore no visible laceration, suggesting that she did not hit any object while plunging to her death.

Persons have since informed this newspaper that at least one official at the Demerara Harbour Bridge was upset that DHB workers had retrieved the woman’s body from the river, rather than leaving that task to the Police or Coast Guards.

Up to the time of leaving the scene, this publication was unable to access the General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge for comment on the issue.

(Leroy Smith)