A 30-year-old man slashed himself with a knife as police tried to talk him down from the roof of Bury's Mosses Centre.
And during the early-morning drama, police officers and paramedics were forced to withdraw from the roof when the distraught man continued to harm himself.
Eventually, however, the injured man came down from the roof after 45 minutes and was later treated at Bury General Hospital for knife wounds.
Police said the man had been depressed and had suffered various domestic problems.
He had clambered on to the roof of the Mosses Centre in Cecil Street at 2.15am on Wednesday.
A Bury police spokesman said: "He had apparently cut his throat and arms with a Stanley knife." Police were joined at the scene by paramedics and firefighters, some of whom used a ladder to scale the building to join the man on the roof.
"While they were talking to him, he continued to make superficial cuts to his wrist."
Police asked for the presence of a force-trained negotiator but later this request was cancelled.
The spokesman added: "As he continued to harm himself, the officers who were on the roof withdrew for a short time in the hope he would stop."
Minutes later, they again went up on the roof and the injured man was treated by a paramedic. He complained of feeling weak.
Around 3pm, he came down from the roof and was later treated for his injuries at Bury General Hospital. Apart from the knife, the man had also been armed with several blades. He had sustained a deep cut to his arm as well as a wound to his throat.
It is understood that police are to take no further action.
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