POLICE have praised a group of young people who alerted them to a man who appeared to be about to kill himself.

The four friends spotted the man sitting in his car, on Sunday night, with a hose coming from the exhaust pipe into the front passenger window.

David Pratley, 19, of Bowler's Orchard, Chalfont St Giles, said they came across the red Volkswagen car parked outside St Mary the Virgin church after taking a wrong turn in Weston Turville while driving to Aylesbury.

They decided to contact the police and drove out of sight, after noticing that the car's engine was not running.

Officers, who arrived at the scene within minutes, smashed one of the car's windows and pulled the man out of the vehicle.

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said the man was conscious when he was taken to hospital.

Mr Pratley said: 'It was a complete accident that we went down the road and found this guy sitting there with the hose coming through the window. He was obviously about to commit suicide.

'By the look of things, the guy would have killed himself if we had not shown up. There was nobody there, it is a desolate village and you get one car there every ten minutes.'

He added: 'When we saw the man inside the car he looked sweaty and seemed like he had passed out. We decided it was best to call the police as the engine was not running.

'They told us to stay out of sight of the car. After the ambulance had left with the man we walked down the road and we saw they had smashed the car window so he had obviously locked himself in.'

The police spokesman said officers acted out of concern for his welfare.

He praised the youths for not ignoring the situation and contacting the police.