LOCAL : Councilman Lindsay Collapses Hours Short of Mandela’s Visit

Los Angeles City Councilman Gilbert W. Lindsay collapsed in the City Hall garage this morning just hours before he was to greet Nelson Mandela in what an aide attributed to heat exhaustion and “excitement over meeting” the South African civil rights leader.

Lindsay, 89, who suffered a mild stroke in 1988, was said to be alert and in stable condition at White Memorial Medical Center downtown, where he was undergoing tests. He was being kept in intensive care as a precaution, but was “barking orders, asking questions and looking all around,” deputy Bob Gay said.

Lindsay, the city’s first black councilman, was to have greeted Mandela as he walked up a red carpet toward City Hall during the Los Angeles leg of his cross-country tour.