WASHINGTON, July 22 (UPI) -- U.S. Capitol police said Tuesday they successfully talked down a man threatening to jump off a ledge inside the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington.
The unidentified man climbed over a railing and was perched 50 feet above the floor of the building's atrium. He had threatened for more than eight hours to commit suicide, but he surrendered peacefully around 2 a.m. Tuesday, The Hill reported.
Authorities had placed an inflatable pad on the atrium's floor to cushion the man's fall had he jumped.
"The U.S. Capitol Police responded to this event, established communications with the individual, and after several hours of deliberate negotiations, convinced him to return to safety on the correct side of the railing," Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said in a statement issued to the newspaper.
