Police save Piccadilly leap man with boxes

This picture shows the moment when police helped save the life of a man threatening to jump from a building in Piccadilly Circus.

The man, in his thirties, was spotted on a window ledge above a shop at the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue, at about 4am today.

Police kept him talking until a negotiator arrived. The officers then piled empty boxes underneath the ledge to break the man's fall.

An hour and a half of tense talks were brought to an end when the man slipped and fell. A witness said: "[The police] saved his life, he could've been hurt seriously if the boxes weren't there."