BALANCING on scaffolding 50ft off the ground, hero cop Bob Helm stretched out to give a suicidal man a cigarette - then lunged forward to save him.

The half-naked man had been clambering over scaffolding under the M6 motorway bridge which crosses the River Ribble at Samlesbury, threatening to jump, for three hours.

As he offered the half-naked man a light, Det Insp Helm saw his chance to bring the ordeal to an end and risked his own life to grab the man's jeans.

Mr Helm, 40, wrestled with the distressed man, who was armed with a metal bar, until they dropped to a ledge where firemen could reach them.

He said: "I knew at any moment he could jump.

"I climbed up on the scaffolding and got talking to him. Eventually I got my chance. I got him to take a cigarette and as I lit the match for him I just grabbed him. I held him as tightly as I could against the scaffolding."

The man was later admitted to psychiatric hospital. Mr Helm's act of bravery has now been commended by Chief Constable Pauline Clare.

It is not Mr Helm's first award - he won the Queen's Gallantry Medal in 1977, when he was just 21, for saving five people from a fire. He lined up with 35 other police and civilians on Monday to receive the commendation.

Four constables from Fulwood Police, Nigel Barnes, Ian Dawson, James Eckersley and Andrew Robson, received the bravery for tackling criminals who attacked them with CS spray and hammers.

Special Constable Patricia Gainer from Leyland was stabbed in the hip as she tried to break up a fight between two youths. Despite her injuries, she went on to handcuff and arrest the offender, taking him to the police station before going to hospital. Her attacker was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment.

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