A DESPERATE man threatening to throw himself off a multi-storey car park was urged to jump by callous bystanders.

The 27-year-old man had told relatives he was going to leap off the Pentagon Shopping Centre’s car park in Chatham.

His family called the police and officers closed off The Brook at about 9.30pm on Tuesday.

It was more than four hours before police negotiators persuaded the man to come down.

A police spokesman said later: "People were calling out to the man to jump while officers tried to coax him down. Getting a person to come back down from a situation like this is not easy."

One onlooker said: "People were laughing at him and goading him to jump. It's just despicable."

The man, from Gillingham, was taken to hospital and detained under the Mental Health Act.

Peter Hasler, director of nursing and modernisation for Medway Primary Care Trust, said: "Society needs to support people who are mentally unwell or emotionally distressed in the same way they would support someone with a physical illness or injury."

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