A man perched on church scaffolding for three hours and threatened to throw himself down.

The 38-year-old, said to be very drunk, warned he would drop from 60ft scaffolding on St Joseph's Church in Elm Grove, Brighton, last night.

Police and fire crews were called shortly after 8pm to try to coax the man down.

Negotiators failed to persuade him and it was not until about 10.15pm when a police officer and a firefighter managed to manoeuvre him into a cage and bring him back down to the ground.

Leading Firefighter Nicholas Greenwood, of red watch at Preston Circus, said: "He was up there for about three hours in all.

"He was heavily drunk and was threatening to jump after having a dispute with his partner.

"At first, when we got there, we had to wait for police negotiators to turn up.

"Unfortunately when they did get here, they weren't too good with heights. Neither of them wanted to go up.

"Eventually a PC and one of our firefighters went up the pole and got the gentleman into the cage."