An off-duty police officer sprang into action when he saw two teenagers balancing precariously on the edge of a multi-storey car park.

PC James Arnold was at a flat in Romney Place, Maidstone when he saw an "agitated and violent" 17-year-old boy pulling a younger teenage girl by her hair at the top of The Mall.

He saw people looking up at the eight-storey building and radioed the force control room.

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PC Arnold said: “I could see the shadow of a man the other side of the railings.

“We would normally try to negotiate with people, but things changed and I decided to go up there. I noticed a girl also on the edge. She looked much younger than him and he was pulling her hair.

“I told the 999 operator I couldn’t sit back and watch. He was in a very violent and agitated state and I knew it would only take one little slip and both of them would have gone over the edge and probably wouldn’t have survived.”

The 30-year-old ran up through the car park levels and grabbed the teenage girl.

He said: “All I wanted to do is make sure she didn’t slip. I jumped over the fence, so there were now three of us on the edge.

“You don’t think about the risks – I just wanted her to be safe. I was balancing my body on the fence and I was able to grab on to her leggings. I could feel them ripping and that’s when I knew it could go terribly wrong.”

PC Arnold’s colleagues then arrived and both teenagers were pulled to safety.

The boy was detained under the Mental Health Act and the girl was checked over at hospital.

PC Arnold, a father-of-two from Maidstone, has now been commended for his bravery following the incident, which happened at around 9pm on Tuesday, February 2.

The officer, who has been part of the area’s district policing team for eight years, witnessed a 15-year-old girl fall from the roof of the former multi-storey car park in King Street in 2012. She suffered serious injuries.

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