Town hall rooftop siege: 3 held

Police cordoned off the area between Stanley Street and Clayton Street following an eight hour stand-off with three men who climbed scaffolding surrounding the clock tower.

Traffic was diverted away from the centre when the disturbance was reported just after midnight yesterday.

The men were seen throwing missiles from the roof and moving the clock hands to activate the chimes. Police said the clock mechanism was damaged during the incident.

Police arrested three men at 8.40am and traffic was flowing normally through the streets within 10 minutes of the cordons being removed.

The three men, from Colne, were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage after removing slates from the roof and remain in police custody.

A 32-year-old was also arrested for a public disorder offence and a 33-year-old for possession of a controlled drug, police said.

The three men were probably under the influence of drink and drugs, they added.

When asked if the incident was a prank, Inspector Phil Davis said: "There is no suggestion that any of the men were trying to jump off the building to kill themselves and during our negotiations no mention was made of this.

"We are looking in to whether the men were drunk at the time of the incident but it's not something you would do if you were sober.

"We did not climb up to the tower to bring them down because we have to look out for the safety of the public and the men.

"We do not fight people on top of scaffolding because we do not do anything that puts people at risk.

"After negotiating with the individuals over night they handed themselves in after climbing down over the front of the scaffolding."

Andrew Wood, 28, of Oak Street, Colne, who was watching the drama unfold, said: "They were up there all night.

"One of them climbed up to the top of the scaffolding and began waving his arms around."

The scaffolding had been previously put in place for essential roof repairs.