A HAMPSHIRE rail station was the centre of a life or death drama as emergency services tried to talk a women down from a high bridge above the track.

Police negotiators spoke with the anguished woman as trains passed to and from Winchester station.

She had clambered over the railings and onto the parapet of the bridge at Upper High Street at around 11.30am and spent almost five hours there before she gave herself up to police.

At times the discussion appeared heated to onlookers. The woman could be heard shouting and arguing with the negotiators.

The public were kept at a distance of at least 50 yards.

Two priests were in the vicinity and one female vicar, who refused to give her name, said that she would pray for the woman.

She offered her services to the police who politely declined her offer.

Several roads around the station were closed during the operation disrupting the journeys of hundreds of people.

A spokeswoman for British Transport Police said its officers were sent to the scene after a call was made at 11.34am.

The spokeswoman confirmed that the woman had climbed down voluntarily shortly before 4.30pm. She was taken by two police officers holding each arm to a police van. She was barefoot.

British Transport Police have said that the woman, who has not been named, was not arrested but has been taken “to a place of safety”.

A South West Trains spokesman said the station had remained open throughout, but that trains suffered “minor delays” and were proceeding through the station with caution.

The incident took place only yards from the base of Winchester Samaritans, on Upper High Street.

To contact Samaritans call 116 123.