In an attempted suicide case in the coastal city of Ningbo in east China's Zhejiang province, a man was saved by police after threatening to jump off a residential building.

The young man, standing on the iron railings outside the windows between two floors of the building, had shouted that he intended to commit suicide. He managed to evade several rescue attempts.

Cai Shijun, policeman of Special Police Branch, Ningbo, said, "The man was very agitated and threatened to jump several times. My repeated attempts to persuade him to come down failed, so I withdrew."

The police decided to attempt an emergency saving operation, without the man's knowledge. One rescuer, suspended by a rope, jumped off the roof from another side of the building, successfully managing to take hold of the man. Other rescuers from windows beneath and above secured ropes to his feet to prevent him from falling. The whole operation took a matter of minutes to carry out. It saved the man's life and has been praised by witnesses.

According to police preliminary investigations, the reason for the suicide attempt was a family argument.