A COOL-HEADED police officer caught a young woman just as she jumped to almost certain death.

Pc Mark Smith, 33, and Pc Geoff Heritage, 34, both based at Bicester traffic Base, had been called to a suicide attempt at a footbridge 25ft above a busy ring road.

The two officers found a distressed woman in her late twenties standing on the wrong side of the railings.

Pc Smith ran on to the footbridge to try to talk her down while Pc Heritage stopped traffic in Upper Windsor Road, Banbury.

"I tried talking to her but she did not respond," Pc Smith told the Oxford Mail. "She seemed determined to jump so I caught hold of her arm."

At the same moment the woman leapt off the bridge.

Pc Smith said: "She was dangling off the railings and only one of my arms had a proper hold on her. She was wriggling to get free and I was losing my grip because her arm was slipping through her jacket."

But the quick-thinking officer managed to radio Pc Heritage for help and they pulled her to safety just in time.

"Without the help of Pc Heritage she would have gone," said Pc Smith, who has been based at Bicester for the past 18 months.

"Afterwards she was really quiet. Normally people say why they tried to jump off but she was different to the rest," he said.

They took the woman, who has not been named, to the Horton General Hospital at Banbury.

Supt Matt Holmes, Banbury Police Area Commander, praised the officers for keeping a cool head.

He said: "These officers did exactly what was needed in the circumstances and deserve plenty of praise.

"They acted coolly and calmly to ensure that neither the woman nor anybody else came to any serious harm.

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