999 rant. Saw some guy jump from Sushi Samba a couple hours ago, landed 10m from me.

So I was working this evening, went to go meet a friend in Aldgate for lunch, was running a bit late. Cycling towards Algate from Liverpool St, felt my phone vibrate so I pulled onto the pavement and stopped to read the text as I'd assumed it was from my friend.

Saw some movement out of the corner of my eye and looked around just in time to see a man hit the ground with a loud bang, so loud it almost sounded like a gunshot. Probably around 10m from me, between the towers. Poor chap died instantly, he wasn’t moving at all.

Immediately called 999 and got launched into a world of confusion...I asked for the police and ambulance, but somehow I ended up with both the call handler person and the police dispatcher (think that's the right terminology?) on the same line. I could hear both of them and they could both hear me, but they couldn't hear each other. Tried to explain what was going on but they kept on talking over me insistently, at the same time so I couldn't actually explain. This went on for about a minute until the handler dropped off the line.

Eventually got talking to the police dispatcher and mentioned the bang sound, which they totally fixated on and wouldn't let it go, asking if I'd seen anything suspicious, any guns etc for ages. This went on for quite a while, until three police vans pulled up next to me, sirens blaring, loud enough to be audible on the phone. Loud enough I had to move away to hear the phone.

Said to the dispatcher that the police had turned up and they got really snappy with me, asking why I hadn't told them everything and wanted me to stay on the line. Eventually I'd had enough and hung up.

It's not the first time I've called 999 but it's been a few years - is this normal for them?

(and yep, I've since called Samaritans to chat to them. The police helpline was truly useless though.)

Edit: some more info from the call which I blanked out until now - I had quite clearly stated he was dead and not moving, but the police dispatcher wanted me to get closer to get an accurate description of him. Clothes, skin colour, hair colour etc. I said I wasn’t comfortable with approaching the poor guy but she kept on asking.