Police were locked in a two-hour stand-off after a woman threatened to leap from a town centre shopping complex.

The woman had climbed some scaffolding in Maidstone High Street in the early hours of this morning and then called police on her mobile, threatening to jump off.

Officers responded to the call at 1.30am and found the 42-year-old woman, believed to be from Maidstone, on the scaffolding at the Chequers Centre extension, almost opposite the Somerfield store.

Officers spent more than two hours talking to the woman, before she was coaxed into coming down of her own accord with the assistance of Kent Fire and Rescue.

Insp Steve Lee said the woman had been detained under Mental Health Act and was currently in hospital where her psychiatric condition was being assessed.