A motorist has described how he 'talked down' a man threatening to jump from a motorway gantry. The drama brought traffic to standstill on the M56 on Thursday afternoon.

It started when a man climbed onto a motorway gantry. A police patrol car stopped the traffic on the carriageway and a brief stand-off ensued just before 3pm.

Motorist Andy Royle, 38, an electrician from Chorlton, was taking his three children swimming when he saw the police patrol stop the traffic as the man scaled the gantry. He said he talked the man down. Police confirmed they later took the man to hospital.

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Andy told the Manchester Evening News he got out of his car to see if he could help and spent 20 minutes trying to persuade the man to come down. He said: "At one stage I thought he was definitely going to jump. He was leant over and I thought he was definitely going to go. I was telling him 'please come down - it's not worth it'."

He reported the man told him: "I've had enough. I'm going to die. I'm going to kill myself." Andy said: "I've told him please come down and we'll have a chat. He didn't want to talk to the police."

He said he considered trying to catch the man if he fell or moving his car in place to break any fall.

Andy went on: "He was saying the police had been after him all day. I climbed up a little bit and grabbed his hand and as he's jumped down the police have grabbed him."

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Andy said the man lost his shirt during the incident, adding: "They took him to the van and the next thing he's running off down the motorway but they got him again. I couldn't believe it. He was running down the motorway with no top on. I thought, my god, all that effort and they didn't 'cuff him."

The father-of-three said: "It was bizarre. It all happened that quick. I've never been in a predicament like that before. I'd really like to know what happened to to the guy. I managed to get him down but I've not got any further.

"It was madness. It's hard to take on what I've done but we got the guy down and that's the main thing."

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: "We were called to a report regarding the concern for the welfare of a man on the M56 at around 2.55pm yesterday. The man was spoken to by officers and subsequently taken to hospital for treatment."

It is believed the man was neither arrested nor sectioned under the Mental Health Act.