A POLICE negotiator talked down a severely depressed man who spent three hours perched on the archway of a railway bridge early on the morning of Friday 7 December.

All trains were stopped after the mother of the 37-year-old man called 999 at 2am to say her son was threatening to climb the rail bridge over Bath Road, Chippenham.

Normal train services on the main line connecting the West Country to London resumed after the man climbed down at around 5.20am, less than five hours before the Queen and Prince Philip were due to arrive at Chippenham Railway Station.

PC David Smith, who was one of the first on the scene, said: "The mother rang in to say that she was concerned for his welfare because he's said he was going to go and climb up the bridge.

"We drove out to the scene and sure enough he was sitting up on the archway, which is pretty high up."

The road was closed on either side of the bridge and firefighters and paramedics were called to the scene.

PC Smith said: "We were talking to him and he was speaking back but we weren't getting very far.

"He was throwing down shingle from the railway line at us, so we had to keep at a safe distance. He said he needed help and he was depressed. We understand this isn't the first time he had done this."

Officers called in a trained negotiator to talk to the man, as well as British Transport Police.

"The negotiator talked to him and eventually talked him down after a couple of hours," added PC Smith.

"As he came down the embankment I arrested him so he could be detained under the Mental Health Act."

The man was later seen by the police surgeon before being referred to Social Services.

The incident is not believed to have delayed any passenger trains.

But PC Smith said: "If he had been up there much longer it might have delayed the train on which the Queen was travelling."