A regional daily was at the centre of a man’s suicide bid after he climbed to a high ledge at its headquarters and threatened to jump.

The drama unfolded on Monday evening at The Northern Echo’s base in Darlington and lasted four hours before emergency services talked the man down to safety.

The man arrived at the Echo’s Priestgate headquarters around 7pm on Monday and entered its car park before then climbing the building to a high ledge.

After being made aware of the situation, editor Peter Barron contacted emergency services and an operation started involving police, the fire service, an ambulance and trained negotiators.

The incident finally came to an end when the man was taken down unharmed just after 11pm after he agreed to climb into a cherry picker and he was then detained by police.

Peter said: “The managing director David Coates spoke to him initially and was concerned enough to talk to me so I phoned the police.

“It went on for four hours. He was eventually removed. They used a cherry picker to bring him down. I think he was drunk and depressed and he was just a passer-by really.

“It was just a question of being patient and talking to him for the emergency services. The fire brigade put some inflatables in front of him to cushion his fall if he did come down.”

He said there had been no impact on the production of the paper.