A woman miraculously escaped with only minor injuries when a man hit her as he plunged 50ft to his death in a busy shopping centre.

Police are appealing for witnesses to the incident, which happened at Crawley's County Mall shopping precinct, at 7.30pm last night.

They say the victim was a 26-year-old from Crawley. The death is not being treated as suspicious.

A police spokesman said: "At 7.30pm police attended a call about a man who had fallen on to the ground level concourse in County Mall.

"The man is believed to be a 26-year-old family man living in Crawley. He has subsequently died.

"A female passer-by was struck by the man as he fell to the ground, but fortunately she was not seriously injured. Police are not treating the incident as suspicious."

County Mall manager Andrew Bauer said it was believed the man jumped from the pedestrian bridge on the second level.

He said: "Security dealt with crowd control and paramedics were on the scene within minutes. The casualty was taken to Crawley Hospital.

"He sadly died about an hour later.

"County Mall was fairly busy for a Thursday evening, and as the casualty hit the ground he had a mild contact with a female, causing no apparent physical injury, but she was obviously very distraught.

"We understand, however, that no one actually saw him on the bridge."