Man follows suicidal woman onto beam above train platform to talk her down

Good samaritan talked to woman to calm her down

The woman climbed over a railing and onto a high beam (Facebook/Michal Klein)

A man risked his own safety to talk a suicidal woman down from a high beam across a subway platform in New York.

The man reportedly saw the woman climb over a railing and crawl onto a girder, which was suspended around 20 feet above the Broadway-Lafayette subway platform, at around 3.30pm (local time) on Saturday afternoon.

As other subway riders watched, he followed the woman onto the beam and sat next to her, talking to her quietly.

One onlooker, Michal Klein, told New York Daily News she overheard the woman saying nobody cared about her.

“It was just like a random person who went over to keep her calm,” Mr Klein said.

At first, Mr Klein thought the woman had climbed onto the beam as a joke, but then realised things were serious when she asked another bystander what was happening.

“She told me the girl had climbed over the railing and went across the beam, and she said suicidal things,” Mr Klein told CBS Local.

She then spotted the man scale the girder to reach the woman.

“I don’t know what I would’ve done. I don’t think I would’ve climbed over to do that,” Mr Klein said.

The police eventually arrived, helped the woman down and escorted her away from the station.

“I just hope that she gets help,” Klein said.

If you are affected by issues raised in this piece, you can contact the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit Samaritans.org.