POLICE officers who were doused with lighter fuel as they attempted to stop a man trying to throw himself from an 80ft high bridge were last night hailed as heroes.

The officers grabbed the man, who was covered in lighter fluid, as he tried to jump from Hownsgill viaduct in Consett, County Durham.

As he struggled to break free, the man sprayed them in the face with lighter fluid and brandished a lighter, threatening to set them all alight.

The drama unfolded on Saturday evening when off duty officer Collette Smith called police to say she had seen the man preparing to jump from the bridge.

Police found PC Smith crouched next to a man who was on the wrong side of the railings.

"PC Smith had hold of his jacket and was talking to him in an attempt to stop him throwing himself off the disused railway viaduct," said a police spokesman.

"Sergeant Karen Naunton and PC Scott Allan joined their off-duty colleague in grabbing the man's clothing and at this point, he tried to throw himself off, but was restrained by the officers."

Three other officers, PC Louis Morrisroe, PC Graham Colclough and PC Steve Clark leant over the railings and grabbed hold of the 38-year-old man, who was detained under the Mental Health Act and taken to Darlington Memorial Hospital.

Inspector Elaine Taylor, of Consett police, said: "Without their actions the man would almost certainly have set alight to himself and jumped to his death."

The six are to be recommended for a chief constable's commendation and are also likely to be put forward for a Royal Humane Society award.