Firefighters become crime fighters in Rockhampton

FIRST ON 7: They usually battle flames and perform rescues, but this morning firefighters in Queensland became crime fighters, helping arrest a suspected car thief who was hiding in a roof.

The man had allegedly earlier broken into a vehicle in a bank car park in Rockhampton before running across rooftops to escape.

When security pictures showed he had not left the laneway, police called for help.

“We used an aerial appliance to locate the person in Key Lane, once it was up, he was located fairly quickly,” Barry Thompson from Rockhampton Fire Station said.

Police said the man had been hiding on the roof of a toilet block for an hour.