PART of a busy high street came to a standstill as a man threatened to leap from the roof of a shop.

A crowd of shoppers stopped and gathered to watch as the man ran around the roof of the Stationery Box store in Chatham High Sreet, screaming and insisting he was going to jump down.

Police were called to the scene at 12.15pm on Friday.

They closed off a section of the street as they tried to reason with the man.

Stationery Box employee, Jenny Magor, 21, from Gillingham, said: "The police seemed to take ages to get him down.

"He was screaming and shouting, 'they’re trying to kill me, they’re trying to get me'.

"I am glad he didn’t manage to jump, I don’t know how he got up there though."

Eye-witness, Sarah Otto, 26, from Sittingbourne, said: "He kept dangling over the side of the building and then climbing back on top again.

"He was shouting and screaming about how they were chasing him and he wanted to be left alone.

"He was begging for help and was screaming for someone to save him. I didn’t know what was going on."

The man is believed to be of Polish descent.

A Medway Police spokesman said later: "The man was taken away by the police to Medway Maritime Hospital.

"He was not hurt but had mental health problems that needed attention."