An ex-Royal Marine has spoken about the moment he heroically came to the rescue of a man threatening to jump off a bridge outside his work.
Luke Morton, 33, was chatting with colleagues at A1 Ortos in Oldham one Saturday morning when he noticed the man climb over to the wrong side of the barriers on a bypass opposite.
Immediately realising something was wrong, he rushed out to try and intervene.
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After talking to the stranger, Luke managed to pull him to safety as colleagues, members of the public and the emergency services watched on in amazement.
Recalling his actions on the morning of Saturday, September 18, sales manager Luke said: "When I first saw him, I thought he was just taking a short cut across the bypass - as crazy as that sounds.
"He got on the other side of the barrier and I just thought this is not good. I need to go and speak to him."
When Luke first reached the man, he was told to 'go away' but he persisted, introducing himself and asking the man's name.
A former Royal Marine, who served in Afghanistan, Luke has lost a number of friends to suicide and asked the man whether he was also an ex-serviceman.
He said he was and the two men struck up a connection.
"That just broke down the barriers straight away," Luke explained. "He still did not want me coming near him, though.
"He said he'd had enough. I told him I've had friends who killed themselves and it's just not worth it.
"I have had dark times myself. Everyone does and everyone deals with things differently."
After police and paramedics arrived minutes later, Luke said the stranger - who told him his name was Neil - became 'agitated'.
Luke approached the emergency services and asked them to give him another five minutes with the man.
As he walked back, he leaned over the barrier, grabbed the man and pulled him to safety.
Luke, who lives in Middleton, managed to hold on to the man before he was taken into the back of ambulance.
Afterwards, Luke said he invited the man into the car dealership for a chat and a coffee.
"I spent quite a lot of the morning with him," he added. "The more I talked to him, the more it calmed him down.
"I made him a coffee and we just talked about different things and why he was struggling.
"He said he had fallen on hard times and had quite a few issues with post-traumatic stress disorder and other things.
"By the end of it all, he shook my hand and thanked me. That was nice to hear."
Luke said he put the man in touch with Rock2recovery, a charity that supports ex-servicemen.
Later that day, one of Luke's colleagues took to Facebook to express his pride in his colleague for his quick-thinking actions.
He described it as 'the most heroic moment he had ever witnessed', while another hailed Luke as 'inspirational'.
Marc Taylor said: "This chap was at a very low ebb and Luke did what he instinctively thought was right.
"You don't really witness stuff like that every day, it's inspirational.
"When something like that happens, a lot of people freeze. Luke didn't give it a second thought.
"He has saved someone's life and gave them a second chance."
Despite the praise from his colleagues and friends, Luke does not perceive his actions as heroic and insists he acted on instinct.
"It was just the right thing to do," he said. "I needed to make sure he was safe.
"I'd like to think if I was I was there, on the other side of the bridge, someone would've done that for me."
