QUICK thinking police officer Belinda Friend's bravery is being recognised after she rugby tackled a man who had doused himself with lighter fuel and was holding a lighter.
The Kendal officer is tonight (Friday) receiving a commendation by Cumbria Chief Constable Michael Baxter at an awards ceremony in Penrith.
Constable Friend followed a man who had absconded from Westmorland General Hopsital last October to Kendal's multi-storey car park.
He was balancing on the barrier of an external wall, threatening to jump.
Seeing the man was agitated and unresponsive, the policewoman rugby tackled him to the ground, where she was also covered in lighter fuel.
Although her quarry was still holding the lighter, she managed to hold him until help arrived.
The gathering at Rheged this evening will be told Constable Friend's quick thinking prevented a serious incident and that her actions were a credit to herself and the police service.
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