A MAN staged a three-hour roof-top protest on Weymouth seafront.

Police, ambulance and fire crews were called to Weymouth Esplanade at 4.30am yesterday where a man in his twenties was on the roof of the Royal Hotel.

The road was closed between the junctions of Gloucester Street, King Street and Turton Street and members of the public were asked to stay away.

Residents in the nearby area were woken up by shouting, including a tirade of abuse aimed at ‘the system, the government and David Cameron’.

Police officers said the man was safely negotiated down from the roof and was ‘safe and well’ by 7.12am yesterday.

Officers confirmed a 25-year-old man, of no fixed abode, had been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and was being questioned by officers. Speaking at the time of the incident, a spokesman for Dorset Police said: “This incident has now been safely concluded.

“The man has been negotiated down from the roof safe and well.”

Dorset Police had earlier apologised to the public for any inconvenience they experienced from the closed roads but said: “Dorset Police appreciates the disruption this will cause during the morning and apologises for any inconvenience caused.

“However, the priority lays with the safety of public, the man on the roof and officers.”

George Joseph, who lives close to the Royal Hotel, said he went out to see what had happened as the police had closed the roads off, and saw the man on the roof of the hotel.

He said: “He was just screaming and shouting, I couldn’t really make out what it was.”

A resident of Gloucester Mews, who did not wish to be named, said the man woke her up and she heard him shout an expletive laden tirade against authority.

Things then went quiet for a bit, before she heard ‘two or three smashes’. She added she also heard ‘giggling’.

She said that she looked out and saw an ambulance in the street.

She said: “I saw him on the roof.

“He was standing up by the chimneys.

“At points he was just leaning against the chimney and just yelling.”

Another resident of Gloucester Street said they heard ‘loud shouting’.

Joyce Wilke from Country Kitchen Cafe in Gloucester Street said they had to go round the road closures to get to work.

She said that Gloucester Mews was taped off and there were police cars and an ambulance.

She said: “It was all taped off.

“There was a police car across the corner by Gloucester Mews so people couldn’t get down.”

She added she saw around six police cars in total and an ambulance.

The Royal Hotel did not wish to comment.