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A 32-year-old man has died after being trapped for hours inside a waterslide pipe at an aquatic center in Arizona, police said.
A policeman patrolling the area near the Eldorado Aquatic and Fitness Center in Scottsdale heard what he believed to be faint cries for help around 12:20 a.m. Monday, Sgt. Brian Reynolds told NBC News.
About 15 minutes later, it was determined that the calls were coming from inside the aquatic center.
It took officers about an hour to determine where the calls were coming from inside the locked aquatic center, police spokesman Kevin Watts said at a press conference.
The pipe where the man was found is in a large outdoor area, so it actually acted like a megaphone, Reynolds said. “It made it difficult at first to locate his location,” he said.
Police said the man entered the facility by scaling a high fence and then crawling inside a large cylindrical steel center support for the waterslide, where he got stuck.
“It was not an easy feat,” Watts said. “It took some work to get there, which obviously wouldn’t be the first place people would look to find someone because of the difficulty.”
Officers and firefighters have been in contact with the man for over an hour and a half while trying to free him before he became unresponsive, Reynolds said. The man was pronounced dead at around 2:18 a.m.
It took several hours to dismantle the structure to recover his body.
The man has been identified, but his name has not been released pending notification of the next of kin.
The investigation is ongoing. The facility includes a 13-lane pool, four diving boards, two large water slides, a large play pool, a water play area, and a fitness center, according to its website.
Calls to the aquatic center went unanswered on Monday.
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