Incredible aerial footage has captured the exact moment a police officer saved a suicidal man. New York City detective Claudio Sanchez is being hailed a hero after rescuing a man threatening to jump from top of the nearly 500-foot Robert F. Kennedy Bridge on Sunday afternoon, reports NDTV.

According to NBC News, when a man scaled a tower above the whir of the RFK Bridge, in an apparent attempt to take his own life, Mr Sanchez was one of the of Emergency Services Unit officers called to make a rescue.

While NYPD harbour patrol waited 100 feet below in the East River, a helicopter kept a watch on the unnamed 31-year-old man from above. He eventually sat down on the ledge, tied a rope around his neck and lost consciousness.

It was then that Mr Sanchez raced to pull the man from off the ledge and into a harness.