A MUSICIAN and a cleaner had a claustrophobic close call when they got stuck in a lift for more than three hours.

Afrobeats singer, Carl, known as 'Rudebone', normally takes the stairs at The Gym in Queen Street, but decided to hop in the lift at around 9.55pm, along with Tina, the company cleaner.

But as the doors slid closed and the lift started to rise it came to a shuddering halt halfway between the two floors.

Carl, 31, kept calm and called the emergency number but as time went on he started posting video updates to his fans on Facebook which were watched more than 400 times.

Gazette:

The Gym is only manned by staff from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday.

However, when the message got out about the situation, the manager arrived within 20 minutes along with a crew of firefighters from Colchester.

But when their rescue mission failed, Carl and Tina faced a long wait for the lift engineer…who had to drive all the way from Norwich.

Carl, who lives at the Hythe, said: “The lift took off for about ten seconds and there was a big shake. I didn’t know what was happening.

“The fire brigade tried for about 15 minutes to get us out but they couldn’t.

“I was panicking and wondering how long we were going to be there. I started filming videos to tell people what was happening in case they were passing by.”

All too soon though, Carl’s phone ran out of battery and he and Tina were stuck making small talk.

Finally the engineer arrived to winch the lift up and Carl and Tina climbed out on to the first floor at around 1.20am – three hours and 25 minutes after they got stuck.

One of Carl’s friends was waiting outside the lift to high five him once he was free.

Carl said: “I was so relieved – I was not feeling all right in there.

“I will be using the stairs from now on.”

Gazette:

  • Rudebone, enjoying his freedom

Two days later, Carl and Tina met again at the gym.

He said: “She looked happy to be back outside.”

The Gym apologised to Carl and offered him a free membership for 12 months for his trouble.

General manager, Tom Stock, said: “Having spoken to the member concerned on number of occasions, we have offered our apologies for any distress caused and as a gesture of goodwill, we have given him complimentary gym membership for 12 months.

“The faulty lift was reported to the property landlord and a second lift engineer was on site later that day to ensure this type of incident is not repeated.”

A spokesman for the fire service said: “One crew from Colchester attended.

“Efforts were being made to release them but we hadn’t been able to.

“The lift engineer was called and the incident was left to the manager.”