Picture Ref: 77714-50A WOMAN suffered severe injuries after she fell from the top of a town centre multi-storey car park in what may have been a suicide bid.

And now traders are calling for barriers to be installed on the car park to stop this happening again as this is the third person who has fallen from there in three years.

The event happened at just after 2pm yesterday when she was spotted by a passer-by standing at the top of the council-run Brunel West car park above the covered Swindon Market Hall.

At the scene acting sergeant Nigel Kinderman, of Swindon Police, said: "A female fell from the top level of the car park. At this stage we do not believe her injuries to be life threatening. She is very lucky on that score.

"We cannot release any details about her at this point."

Two of the first people on the scene were Boots pharmacists Fiona Eveleigh and Emma Hughes.

Ms Eveleigh, who has worked at the store for 20 years, said: "This isn't the first time that something like this has happened. There was nothing much we could do apart from cover her with a blanket.

Ms Hughes reassured the woman until the ambulance came. She said: "We are trained in first aid so people automatically come into the store to see us when something like this happens.

"I didn't want to move her as I didn't know exactly where she was injured. She was talking so I kept telling her everything would be okay.

"I thought they were going to put barriers up there to stop this kind of thing happening."

Traders at the covered market have been calling for barriers to be put up for years, especially after incidents where children throw rocks and bricks from the top.

Robin King, the market manager who was at the scene with his deputy Stuart Reeves, believes something needs to be done.

He said: "The council line is that they can't put barriers up everywhere as the people would just find somewhere else to jump.

"But this is a public area and with youths throwing stuff over as well it should be a priority.

"We shouldn't be getting tragic events like this. What has to happen for the council to finally listen?"

Trader Bill Newman, of Hong Kong Connections, said: "This isn't the first time this has happened. It is really distressing for the public when something like this happens. With kids throwing stuff from there as well it is dangerous.

Les Simpson has run a discount food shop at the covered market for nearly 10 years.

"The last time this happened I called on the council to put up barriers, but they said it wasn't a problem," he said.

"How many more people have to die before they do something?

Swindon Council spokesman Gavin Calthrop said: "Our first thoughts are with the person concerned, her family and friends.

"There have been three incidents of people jumping from this car park in the last three years.

"We have looked into the possibility of putting up barriers but information from other local authorities suggests that they are not effective.

"If someone is determined to jump from a tall building they will scale barriers or find an alternative public building without barriers.

"It would cost approximately £20,000 to install barriers in each car park, which still would not guarantee preventing people jumping.

"The sad conclusion is that if someone is determined to harm themselves in this way then it is very difficult to stop them."

Tamash Lal & Jamie Hill