THREE policemen - including a sergeant from Bolton - who made a desperate life-saving grab at the legs of a man who was plunging from a 13-storey building have earned bravery awards. The quick thinking officers, based in Salford, grabbed the diving man's legs as he jumped from the rooftop. The incident happened in the early hours at a block of high-rise flats in Lower Kersal, Salford when PCs David Hulme, 34, of Leigh, Andrew Caddy, 27, of Swinton, and Sgt Michael Fraser, 30, of Bolton, sprang into action.

All three have been presented with Royal Humane Society awards in recognition of their actions.

The incident happened in July. The officers arrived at the scene to find a man sitting on the edge of the roof, 13 storeys up.

He was dressed only in his underpants and had bedding quilt around his shoulders.

The officers positioned themselves in a room directly underneath where the man was sitting. They spoke to him and discovered he was in a depressed state and that he intended to jump from the roof and kill himself.

The officers continued to talk to the man in an effort to coax him to come back into the flats to safety.

But the man jumped and as he fell the three officers managed to grab hold of him by his legs and pull him to safety.

Sgt Fraser sustained a badly sprained wrist and PC Hulme, a slight injury to his left shoulder.

The man was taken to Hope Hospital where he was later certified under the Mental Health Act, and was then taken to Meadowbrook Psychiatric Hospital, where he had undergone previous treatment for mental illness.

In their citation for their award, all three officers were praised for putting "themselves at considerable risk in saving this man".

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