Police called to welfare incident at Westgate shopping centre

A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police said the force received a call at about 10.05am yesterday with regards to a ‘fear for welfare at the Westgate’.

The spokesperson added that officers subsequently attended the scene with the incident safely resolved without injury by about 11am.

Photos sent to this newspaper show police cars parked either side of the John Lewis store, in both Norfolk Street and Speedwell Street.

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Three police cars were positioned in Norfolk Street, with a further vehicle on the other side of the shopping centre, in Speedwell Street.

Uniformed officers could also be seen on the bridge inside the shopping centre, which links to the John Lewis store.

One eyewitness, who did not wish to be named, said they saw five police cars in total, and ‘lots of officers and security stood around John Lewis at all the exits’.

Last year, an 80-year-old man killed himself by jumping from the top of the Westgate.

Vernon Newey, who died on January 4, carried a camera around Oxford and asked shop staff how to get to the roof of the shopping centre.

Read again: 80-year-old man jumped from terrace roof of Westgate

CCTV footage captured him walking up the stairs to the shopping centre’s roof terrace, taking a chair from a restaurant, and waiting for people to walk past him before dropping his belongings and jumping to his death.

Police were called to the scene in Greyfriars Street.

GP reports revealed that he had suffered with insomnia and had been stressed because of financial problems.

Meanwhile, it was announced last month that John Lewis would be shutting eight of its stores, with the potential loss of almost 1,500 jobs.

Oxford survived the cut, which came after the department store also permanently shut eight stores in 2020.

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