UPDATE: Gosport High Street stand off ends as man who climbed onto roof comes down

The drama started at about 2.30am this morning and police soon taped off part of the pedestrian zone.

Shops remained closed while negotiators tried to stop the man from carrying out threats to harm himself.

Dozens of people gathered around the area, many arriving for a funeral parade for

Chris Woodford, who worked in the McDonalds restaurant that was within the cordoned-off area.

Police lifted the cordon so that the hearse and funeral cars could pass down the street and shops could finally open as they continued to talk down a man from a roof.

He finally came down shortly before 11am.

Before the stand off ended, Inspector Kelvin Shipp said: ‘We have had police specialist officers the ambulance here. At the end of the day we want him down from there as soon as possible.

‘He hasn’t given any indication about why he is there but we have people who are specially trained talking to him.’

Later, he confirmed that a 32-year-old man from Gosport had been detained by police, adding: ‘He has been detained in relation to criminal damage that has been caused.

‘There is some damage to roof tiles so he will be interviewed in relation to that.’

The man received medical attention after he was talked down by mental health specialists.

Insp Shipp praised the efforts of emergency and health services involved in resolving the stand-off.

‘Everybody is fine,’ he said. ‘It’s the result that we wanted.’

As the drama unfolded, Gary Mills, from Lee-­on-­the­-Solent, said: ‘It’s absolute mayhem. All we heard is that there is someone on the roof threatening to jump.

‘I don’t know if it’s connected or not but I saw there is also a big glass window at Nelson pub that’s been smashed through.’

Lisa, from Gosport, who did not want to give her surname, said: ‘It’s very sad of course because today was obviously about Chris but I wouldn’t like to sit and judge because you

don’t know what goes on in people’s minds.

Pictures Jason Kay, UKNIP