WATCH | Film prop body causes panic in Westville

Emergency crews who abseiled to retrieve a “body” from the Palmiet River found a film prop on Wednesday. 

Mobi-Claw911 operations director Wynand Laatz said a panic activation was received from a client in the Westville area about a possible body wrapped in a blanket in the Palmiet River.

“Mobi-Claw911 management was on scene first. Role players were activated, search and rescue from Netcare 911, [the] SA Police Service and Durban metro police. 

“Services that attended managed to abseil down to what looked like a body. It was established that it was not a body. It was blankets wrapped to look like a body,” he said. 

Further investigation revealed there had been a camera crew filming on site on Tuesday evening.  

Laatz said the crew left props behind.  

Police were investigating to possibly take action against the crew. 

“It is important to note the waste of resources was uncalled for for this call-out. Various responders, search and rescue, police, paramedics, volunteers were here when their services could have been used for a real emergency.  

“We do not support any form of illegal video recordings,” said Laatz.

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