Antarctic Base “Under Control” after the researcher accused a colleague of attack, says South Africa

Johannesburg – Sounds like a tangle of a horror movie. The researchers were stuck on a remote research base in Antarctica, sending e -hasts to the world, asking for help because his colleague was charged with attack.

But this was real. Emergency E -mail sent a researcher in an isolated base of IV South Africa in South Africa in Antarctica accusing the man, one of nine team members, to become violent and mentally unstable. In the e -stipation sent to a journalist in South AfricaThe Sunday Times newspaper, a researcher who is not publicly identified, requires immediate action to ensure the safety of the team.

According to The Times, the researcher claimed that a member of the male team physically attacked colleagues, threatened to kill another colleague and sexually attack another. However, South African officials later said that a sex attack report was not accurate.

“His behavior was becoming increasingly terrible, and I have significant difficulties in the feeling of safe in his presence,” the researcher’s newspaper quoted as writing, adding: “It is necessary to take direct action to ensure my safety and safety of all employees.”

The South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment announced a statement stating that the alleged attack at the base was reported on February 27, which launched a response plan for which the Government Agency used “trained professionals” to mediate. The department said these intermediaries continue to deal with the team at the base “almost daily”.

According to the agency, the alleged perpetrator “participated willingly in a further psychological assessment, showed remorse and willingly cooperated to follow all recommended interventions.”

The statement continued that the male perpetrator wrote an apology to the victim and was willing to “verbally apologize to other team members”.

South African Environmental Minister Dion George told CBS News on Tuesday that “the situation in the base remains calm and that everything is under control.”

“I will keep close contact with the base to ensure that he stays like that,” George said, adding that “a team of psychologists and other experts” was also in “direct and constant” contact with the team.

When he pressed what else he could do to ensure the safety of the team, George said he “considering the available opportunities.”

These options may be a little, because the difficult weather conditions have completely cut off the base from the sea. The base sits on sequins near the edge of a cliff-niz building where the team will remain until December, the hearts of the summer of Antarctica, when the ship was supposed to step down from South Africa to make a trip close to 15 days to retrieve them.

Emergency evacuation, with significant costs, should get the team out before.

Environmental Department announced that he also activated the legal “work procedure [claim of] physical attack and allegedly sexual harassment. “

In the past, there have been several incidents with team members in the remote database of threatening violence, and at least two team members were evacuated during the previous expeditions.

The latest incident encouraged discussions about the reliability of the psychometric tests given to team members before they were arranged into an isolated station. Scientists have previously sent to the base, and others like that spoke about how lonely, surrounded by white and silence and cut off from the rest of the world, and tolls that can take over one’s mental health.