Two window cleaners are glad to be back on dry land after getting stuck several stories above the ground.

Lee Chopping and Tony Scannell were trapped outside the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton yesterday when the power failed on the narrow metal cradle they were using.

They were left swaying in strong winds more than 120ft in the air for an hour-and-a-half before firefighters could winch them down to safety.

Mr Chopping, 41, said: "We had just finished the first couple of windows at the top when the power just died.

"So we banged on the window to get attention.

"A nurse saw us and got an engineer who phoned the emergency services."

The men were grateful to hospital staff for looking after them as they clung on to the cleaning cradle.

Mr Chopping added: "Everyone was great and they passed us tea and toast through the window."

Both men paid tribute to firefighters for getting them down safely.

Mr Scannell, 26, of Trafalgar Street, Brighton, said: "I was a bit worried at first because I wasn't sure how they would get us down. I thought we might have to clamber over the side on to their ladder, which would have been scary.

"But they just used the manual winch to lower us down slowly. The firefighters were good as gold and were in total control of the situation."

The sky-high drama has not put the men off window cleaning.

Mr Chopping added: "I have been doing this for 20 years and once fell out a first floor window and broke all the bones in my left foot, so something like this wasn't too bad at all."