MANILA —The man who was trapped in a barge swept away along the Pasig River was rescued early Thursday morning, about 8 hours since he was stranded in the middle of the river.

Barges were spotted almost hitting the trusses of the F. Manalo Bridge in Pasig around 4 p.m. on Wednesday. After about 2 hours, authorities received reports that a man was stranded on the barge, said Bryant Wong, head of Pasig’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (DRRMO).

The operation took time as officials first had to shut off power in the area to avoid possible electrocution, Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto said.

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The rescue mission was quite challenging as the barge was only hanging onto the bridge through some tangled wires, the mayor told ABS-CBN News.

It took some hours before the officials from the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) from Pasig and Quezon City managed to throw a rappelling line from the bridge to the stranded barge.

At 12:43 a.m. or 8 hours after the barge was swept under the F. Manalo bridge, the BFP finally secured the line to the barge and pulled the man across.

The man, who has yet to be identified, was immediately brought to a hospital for first aid and for medical check up.

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The barge’s owner — a contractor supposedly working on a flood control project upstream — will shoulder the hospital bills of the rescued individual.

The vessel’s owner should also be responsible for clearing some 14 barges that were swept into the F. Manalo bridge, Sotto said.

“I-aassess po siya bukas ng ating mga engineer at hopefully okay naman siya pero either way kailangan ayusin siya ng contractor,” he said.

“Mukha namang cooperative sila… Sasagutin naman daw ng contractor,” he added.

Pasig’s city engineers will check the structural integrity of the bridge soon, the Mayor said.

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