Antwerp fire-fighters confuse drowning person with art

Antwerp fire-fighter suffered a serious bout of trompe l'oeil on Tuesday night after a fire engine was dispatched to the Bonaparte Dock with the intention of rescuing a swimmer who had got into difficulty only to discover that a performance artist was at work.

Earlier Antwerp emergency services received a call from a concerned member of the public. He reported a man in a hut on a raft on the water. Fire-fighters sped to the scene hoping to rescue the gentleman from his predicament only to discover that the Slovenian performance artist Mark Pozlep was at work.

Working in the shadow of the MAS Museum on the River Mark Pozlep shouted in English at arriving fire-fighters that he had completed the necessary paperwork with regard to his performance. Fire-fighters didn't see the joke and hauled the Slovenian off the water insisting that he hadn't complied with all safety precautions.

Bert Janssens, the man responsible for the art project, has promised that all security precautions will be taken in future.

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