‘Belligerent’ man arrested for interfering with Kamloops paraglider rescue: RCMP

While search and rescue crews were trying to save a paraglider from Mount Paul near Kamloops last night, a man was arrested for interfering with their work.

A 35-year-old man climbed to the peak, interfering with the search and rescue team. He became "belligerent and abusive" to the searchers, according to Kamloops RCMP.

"He claimed to have gone to assist (search and rescue) but was not attached or related to them, or the man who was rescued," Staff Sgt. Janelle Shoihet said in an emailed statement.

Kamloops Search and Rescue volunteers were tending to a paraglider who fell roughly 20 metres from a cliff after his parachute failed to deploy, search manager Alan Hobler told iNFOnews.ca earlier today.

The rescue operation continued for hours. They were called to the scene around 4:30 p.m., Nov. 13, continuing until around 1:30 a.m. when he was flown to Royal Inland Hospital in a military helicopter.

The suspect was later arrested just before 9 p.m., somewhere at the base of the mountain near the Sun Rivers neighbourhood, but Shoihet couldn't say exactly where the arrest was.

The man hasn't been charged and he was eventually released, but the police investigation is ongoing.

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