A man is this morning is hospital after falling 20 feet from a fire escape.

The 54-year-old plunged from the fire escape and onto a roof from an address in Hanover Crescent, Brighton, at 5.30am today.

Sussex Police, South East Coast Ambulance Service paramedics and firefighters attended the scene.

A Sussex Police spokeswoman said: “Police were called following a report a man from a fire escape onto the roof.

“He has been taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital where he will be treated for his injuries, which are not life threatening.

“The circumstances of the incident are being investigated, but it is not believed to be suspicious.”

A firefighter from Preston Circus station in Brighton who attended the incident said the man landed on his back.

He said firefighters helped paramedics move the man, adding: “Because he was on a roof an aerial ladder had to be used to get him down.

“It is not clear how he ended up on the roof or why he was on the fire escape in the first place.

“But he weighed about 16 stone so he landed heavily.”