An off-duty firefighter has described how he volunteered to be suspended over the side of the Tyne Bridge to rescue a suicidal woman.

A policeman clamped his arms around Ian Black's legs as he dangled over an 80ft drop during the dramatic night-time rescue bid.

The reluctant hero said he was "just doing his job" and had not realised the full impact of his instinctive decision until the following day.

Imprints of the policeman's fingers are clear in bruises on his legs where he was holding on so tightly.

Mr Black was travelling from his home in Tynemouth, Tyneside, to his girlfriend's in Whickham, Gateshead, when he saw a woman climb over the protective barrier along the Tyne Bridge at 7.30pm on Tuesday.

She tied a dressing gown cord and brown leather belt around her neck, attached it to railings and stepped over the side just as Mr Black and a police van arrived on the scene.

"She was hanging four feet down," he said. "I was held over and managed to get a decent hand-hold on her trousers to get her out.

"It is one of those things with the fire brigade. I could see there was no other way to do it. There was no other alternative. I knew the police wouldn't do it.

"Heights don't bother me. It was a case of she needed help so it had to be done.

"It wasn't until I went back the next day in broad daylight I thought 'What was I doing?'''

The woman was hauled to safety and, despite repeated attempts to climb back over the railing, was detained by police under the Mental Health Act.

Despite the firefighter's training and expertise, he acknowledged that the rescue attempt could have gone terribly wrong.

"If she had struggled, causing the policeman to let go of my leg, I would have fallen over," he said.

"But the police were great. Everything I asked them to do, they did."