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Emergency hair cut saves abseiler

SYDNEY: An emergency hair cut is being credited with saving the life of an Australian woman whose long blonde hair jammed in her climbing harness while abseiling down a cliff outside Sydney.

The young woman was descending the 30-metre cliff by a rope on Tuesday when wind blew her hair into a clip guiding the rope through the harness, police said on Wednesday.

She tried to hold her weight but was forced to dangle by her hair before an abseiling companion rushed to support her in mid-air. Another abseiler used a portable telephone to call the local police, who arrived with a pair of scissors, police said.

A police officer abseiled down to her and snipped her free.

"I don't know if they were hairdressers' scissors or if it was a real neat job, but they worked," a spokesman for local police, Sergeant Bill Pearce, said.-Reuter