Two ‘boy racers’ have been praised by police after they stopped a distressed woman from jumping from the top of a car park.

Daniel Luscombe, 23, of Melksham, and Ashley Gibbs, 20, of Bowerhill, had been sheltering from the rain in the lower level of St Stephen’s Place multi-storey car park on Tuesday evening.

They saw two boys aged 14 on their bikes who told them they had seen the woman at the top of the six-storey car park.

They had seen blood on the ground where she had cut herself.

They contacted the police, before talking to the woman until the emergency services arrived.

Mr Luscombe said: “The boys came hurtling up to us and said there was a woman up there with a lot of blood and I thought we had better go up and check what was going on.

"She was quite hysterical, so we called the police and I tried to talk to her and keep her calm.

“It all happened really quickly and the police arrived quickly. I’m the kind of person who is always happy to help and I’m glad we could do something.”

PCSO Jay Greenland, who was on call at the time, praised the actions of the duo, who he referred to as “boy racers”, on his Twitter account.

He said: “We were on Op Harness when the call came in that there was a lady on top of the multi-storey car park who was not in a good way. She was in a very distressed state, but the two lads did a brilliant job and kept her alive.”

“I was first to arrive and continued talking to her until two further officers were able to contain her.”

The 22-year-old woman was given first aid and taken by ambulance to Trowbridge Hospital.

PCSO Greenland said: “There are people with a negative perception of boy racers and youngsters hanging around as they are perceived to be unruly, but having them do what they did hopefully breaks that perception.”

Mr Luscombe said: “I wouldn’t say we are so much boy racers. I do have a black Astra with bright green wheels and a spoiler, but that is more because I like my cars and like standing out.”