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Paparazzi create security problems at Austrian hospital

Healthcare Security Weekly, May 26, 2008

Photographers, trying to get pictures of Austrian incest victim Elizabeth Fritzl and her family, have created a security nightmare at the hospital where the seven family members are being cared for.

A security guard at the Amstetten Mauer psychiatric clinic was injured after he fell from a balcony while tackling a photographer earlier this month, reported the Guardian Unlimited. Hospital officials said that 22 photographers had been caught trying to get the world’s first photo of the family and had been escorted from the premises. Following the guard’s injury, the hospital decided to have security guards patrol in teams of two, supported by police dogs.

Efforts by paparazzi to get a photo have been unrelenting. One photographer disguised himself as a police officer, another dressed as a cleaner, and a third dug a hole in the ground and covered himself with a bird watcher’s tent, the Guardian reported. Photographers hiding in trees were caught after local mountain rescue crews provided hospital security guards with thermal imaging cameras. Austrian media reported a photographer tried to paraglide into the grounds of the clinic and at one point the Fritzl family was rushed back inside when a helicopter with a photographer on board was spotted hovering overhead.

The injured security guard suffered cuts and bruises after he was called by a nurse who spotted a photographer peering in through a hospital window. A hospital official appealed to the media to respect the family’s right to privacy. Austrian media also reported a clinic worker had taken secret photos and was trying to sell them. Clinic officials sent a letter to staff warning them of legal consequences for violating the family’s privacy. Security guards also tangled with a Belgian television crew that refused to leave after coming inside the hospital.

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