Story By: Ernest Bio Bogore, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

Gendarmes who turned up because of reports of a screaming woman at a hotel in France were just in time to grab a pregnant woman by the ankle as she tried to leap out a window.

Passers-by in the 18th arrondissement of Paris said the dramatic rescue operation was something like a scene from a “Hollywood Movie” when it took place on Saturday night. It was 3:45am when CRS agents (the French riot police) on patrol heard screams coming from a hotel.

They approached, thinking at first of a fight, reported the radio station France Bleu Paris.

Once there, they discovered a young woman, unnamed in local reports, sitting on a ledge about 40 centimetres high on the second floor of the building.

She was five months pregnant and reportedly wanted to put an end to her life, threatening to throw herself off.

At the foot of the hotel, many people watching the scene were trying to dissuade her.

The officers’ first priority was to calm the crowd, as the shouting was only stressing the unfortunate woman even more.

They then went up to the room where the young woman’s partner and her first child, aged nine months, were staying.

One of the police officers, unnamed in reports, told local radio: “Suddenly, the young woman tried to jump. One of my colleagues managed to hold her by the arm, and I managed to grab her ankle.”

Thanks to their efforts, the officers managed to bring the young woman, whose age was not reported but who was in her pyjamas, back into the room.

The officer added: “It wasn’t easy, we didn’t have a grip like a belt to hold her.”

She was taken by the fire brigade to the Bichat–Claude Bernard Hospital.

It was not revealed why she wanted to jump or what she had been screaming about.

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