POLICE saved the lives of two men yesterday in dramatic rescues.

Trained negotiators talked a 16-year-old local youth down from the roof of Bow Street multi-storey car park, where he had been sat threatening to jump for four hours.

Horrified passers-by watched as the man dangled his feet over the edge of the seven-storey building.

A section of the road between Folds Road and the building was sealed off and the nearby Argos Superstore overlooking the drama was closed.

Police joined paramedics and fire crews at the scene at about 9am.

Two negotiators were sent in and they talked to the youth on the roof edge. He backed off and came down at around 12.15pm.

Police also rescued a man found clinging by one arm onto the Raikes Lane footbridge overlooking St Peter's Way.

Police and paramedics were called at 10.53am -- just as the drama at Bow Street car park was unfolding.

The bridge was closed and traffic underneath stopped before police officers moved in to grab the man as he prepared to jump.

Both men, who have not been named, were taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital for treatment. The Bow Street multi-storey car park has been the scene of previous roof top incidents.

In December 1997 shocked workmen and Christmas shoppers watched as 26-year-old John Allen, of Sunninghill Street, Daubhill, plunged 100ft to his death.

An inquest heard that Mr Allen had suffered from depression for a number of years.

Days after the tragedy, car park bosses revealed extra safety measures to help rid the high-rise building of its suicide hotspot reputation.

Part of a multi-million pound package was used to raise the parapet and seal of gaps in the walls to try and stop unauthorised people entering the building.