A man has been hailed a hero after he rescued a two-year-old toddler from the ROOF of an Oxfordshire hotel.
Preston Likely, 42, climbed up a drainpipe and clung to the child until the fire brigade arrived to bring them down from the top of the Tree Hotel in Iffley village.
The little boy's mum was also on the roof, having become stuck after attempting to rescue him herself during the incident late on Saturday afternoon.
Mr Likely told his local paper he only realised what was happening when a large crowd began staring up.
"I was about to sit down when I noticed a large crowd of people staring at something. I thought it was some sort of gathering, he said. "Then I looked up and saw the child on the roof tottering about. I threw my bag down without thinking and just climbed up and grabbed him. It was instinctive, I didn't think, I just scrambled up."
Mr Likely held on to the child for about 15 minutes until they were brought down by fire crews using an hydraulic platform
"He was wriggling about, and for a two-year-old was very powerful. It made it all the more precarious and I really had to squeeze to hold on to the little guy," Mr Likely said. "You don't have time to process it while it's happening, you just have to act and then think about it later."
Bystander Linsey Denholm said the air had been filled with tension every time the little boy moved on the roof.
"I was reading when a woman came in and said there was a small boy on the roof and we should call for help," she said. "People started looking at each other, like 'what?' So we went out and saw and it was pretty scary as he was up there and looked like he was in danger."
"Every time he moved we were gasping with horror as he could have easily fallen off. We started circling the roof so that if he did fall one of us could catch him, and his mother was trying to talk to him to calm him and say that the fire brigade were on their way."
She said that as soon as Mr Likely arrived on the scene he 'shimmied right up there and grabbed the boy'.
The manager of the hotel, Namit Julka, said that the child had climbed on to the roof up a ladder which was kept at the back of the premises.
"I was behind the bar when the mother came in saying that the child had gone up," he said. "I went outside to help, came back in and phoned the fire brigade straight away. We are very glad it ended safely."
Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service confirmed the child had climbed up ladder and then walked across a flat roof and on to the ridge.
"The brave actions of the member of the public made sure that the child was safe and the fire service could bring everyone down to the ground," their spokesperson said.