Wallingford town centre shock after emergency incident

Police, fire and ambulance were positioned outside the St Mary-le-More church in Wallingford on Wednesday evening due to a welfare incident.

The blue light services were sat in the centre of the market place, just behind the town hall for around three hours.

Shop owners first noticed the police arriving at the incident with dog handlers as they were closing up at around 5pm.

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A spokesman for Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue confirmed crews were called to the church at 6.22pm but were not “directly involved” in resolving the incident.

It is believed the incident lasted until around 8pm when there were no more emergency vehicles outside the church.

There have been several eyewitness reports of a man being spotted on the roof.

It is understood work had been taking place inside the church and the man climbed on scaffolding inside.

One eyewitness, Craig Simpson, said: “Police, ambulance, fire engine went in the church and an ambulance took a stretcher into the church.

“They also closed the town off for a short period.

"The police apparently were really good and managed to talk him down without a terrible incident.

"The roof had not collapsed as was speculated by some people."

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Another shop owner, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “It was a shock. I did wonder what was happening, especially with the police dogs.

“There was a lot of police.

“My shop is opposite the church. I didn’t see anyone in the roof but it doesn’t mean there wasn’t someone.

“There were four or five police cars, a fire engine, an ambulance special response unit and dog handlers."

Edward Simpson, a worker at Just Trading at Wallingford, said: “No one at the store saw it.

“I was in the town centre but I was indoors at the Corn Exchange so the first I knew was when people came inside saying something had happened at the church.

“It was very much of a surprise to hear it, you never expect to see that many emergency service vehicles in the middle of the town all in one go.”

The Diocese of Oxford has said it will not comment on this incident. 

The Oxford Mail has approached the church and Thames Valley Police for comment.

A spokeswoman for Thames Valley Police said she could not find any details on the incident in the force's internal system.