Two police officers saved a 40-year-old woman who threatened to jump off a multi-storey car park.

The officers spent a tense hour trying to persuade the woman, who has not been named, to come away from the edge of the top floor of the new car park, near Castle Key Shopping Centre, in Banbury.

Shoppers were kept away from the area and nearby footpaths on Thursday and the emergency services, including paramedics and firefighters, were on standby.

The police were called to the car park at 3pm after they were alerted that the woman was threatening to harm herself.

Spokesman David Campbell said: "The woman's intentions and motives were not clear and it was a very delicate situation. There was no scope for any wrong moves on the part of the emergency services and they kept a low profile so as not to alarm her. Eventually, police got close enough to restrain her and got her to a safe place. It was a tense 60 minutes."