Residents tell of suspected burglar fleeing police after 20ft rooftop jump in Portsmouth

Officers swooped on Montague Road in North End, Portsmouth, after a break-in at a home was reported at 10.26am yesterday.

The News understands that people were in the house at the time of the raid.

As the police helicopter hovered overhead searching for the suspect, officers checked back gardens in neighbouring Kirby Road looking for the burglar. But the suspect escaped.

A 64-year-old man, who asked not to be named, has told how he came out of his back door in Kirby Road to see a man just 2ft away from him fleeing the burgled house, that backs on to his garden.

He said: ‘He was just standing there walking past – he was in my garden. I thought he was possibly a builder next door who had just dropped a tool over.

‘Then I heard a hell of a noise out at the front. Police were brilliant – they got here like a rocket.

‘He got up on the garage roof. The police saw him and he started walking back, that’s when I saw him there.’

The resident added the man who jumped on the plastic corrugated garage roof had damaged it.

Scenes of crime officers were scouring the scene of the burglary yesterday morning to collect evidence.

Family of the victim declined to speak to The News.

Brian Shearman, 82, said that he saw a man in his neighbour’s garden.

‘I was in the kitchen and heard a big bang, which was louder than the cats that jump around,’ he said. ‘This was a real thump. I looked out the window and saw the chap going over the fence. I thought “that’s not right”. There was a great big police van outside the front. I think somebody was in at the time.’

Mr Shearman added the man he saw was wearing a black T-shirt with white writing.

His wide Josephine, 79, added: ‘We feel, to be perfectly honest, security is all.’

No-one has been arrested.

Paul Smart, 46, of Kirby Road, said police came through his house to search for the suspect in the garden.

He said: ‘I had four police officers come down through my house into the garden. The police helicopter was up looking for the guy,’

Officers and detectives from the dedicated burglary team Operation Hawk are investigating.

A police spokesman said: ‘Officers investigating a report of a burglary at a home on Montague Road in North End have been using specialist resources including the police helicopter to search for a suspect who was seen running from the scene. Enquiries are ongoing and no arrests have been made.’