Police in the small Belgian town of Kortrijk were notified of a suicide attempt taking place in Savonlinna in Finland, when they managed to alert local Finnish police via Europol to get to the person’s home on time, avoiding a tragedy, a police spokesperson confirmed to Belga on Wednesday.
The Flemish police were contacted on Sunday about a possible suicide attempt in Finland by a person who had himself been informed by a friend living in England. Their mutual friend of Finnish nationality had previously lived in Belgium, and is now residing in Savonlinna, in South-East Finland.
Both the person living in England and the one in Belgium had tried in vain to warn the Finnish police. The police in Kortrijk then issued an alert via an urgency platform. Europol picked it up and immediately contacted the local police in Savonlinna to get to the woman's home as quickly as possible.
On the same Sunday, the Belgian police finally received a reassuring email from their Finnish colleagues, explaining that the woman had been found on time. She had suffered from an overdose of medication but was able to be resuscitated, and her life is no longer in danger.
"Thanks to old-fashioned police work, combined with international communication and collaboration between police services, a human tragedy was avoided," a local Belgian police officer said.
For any questions about suicide, you can contact the Suicide Line anonymously on the toll-free number 1813 or at www.zelfmoord1813.be in Dutch, at 0800 32 123 in French, or at 02 648 40 14 in English.
The Brussels Times
