A WOMAN staged a three hour window ledge protest after police were called to a suspected domestic violence incident.

Officers went to Caister Drive, in Pitsea, just before 9am on Sunday and detained a man.

However, this then led to a woman climbing onto a window ledge and refusing to come for several hours.

One resident, who asked not to be named said: “She was doing it to try and get police to let her boyfriend go. You could hear her shouting: ‘I’m not coming down until you let him go.’

“At one point there were about 14 police there who probably would have been better off doing something else.”

Residents said the woman also claimed to be five months pregnant and had other children in the flat.

An Essex Police spokesman said: “Police were contacted just before 9am this morning with reports of a domestic incident having happened at a property in Caister Drive, Basildon.

“When officers attended a man was detained and a woman went to an upper floor window ledge and refused to come down.

“Following negotiations with the woman she came away from the edge voluntarily at 11.40am.

“Officers are working with the couple to establish whether any offences were committed and to complete a full risk assessment.”