A MAN was in hospital last night after falling about 50ft as he tried to shoo away a pigeon from his window sill.

The noisy bird was roosting outside the bedroom window of his fourth-floor flat and began cooing.

The 30-year-old decided to climb out on to his windowsill to frighten off the bird as it was keeping him awake.

But he slipped and fell to the ground in Banbury Road, Fawdon, Newcastle, at 12.55am yesterday.

Paramedics took him to Newcastle's General Hospital, where he was being treated for a spinal injury last night.

Acting Sergeant Keith Lowrey, of Northumbria Police, said: "He was very lucky to have escaped serious injuries after falling from that height."

Neighbour Lesley Oram, 28, who lives in the ground-floor flat with her nine-year-old daughter May, said: "I was the one who called 999. I was having my supper in the living room when I heard the sound of breaking glass and then shouts for help.

"I didn't know what had happened. I thought someone had been stabbed or something like that.

"I told the police to come. I didn't realise that a man had fallen from the fourth floor - I hope he's alright."

An ambulance spokeswoman said the man had fallen between 40ft and 50ft and had suffered back and abdominal injuries."