A mother has spoken about the ‘horrific’ moment she spotted a suicidal girl on a bridge.

Pam Rees, 70, of Mayville Road, Leytonstone, was walking to the shops on Saturday when she noticed traffic had slowed on Cathall Road bridge and drivers were sounding their horns.

Mrs Rees then found a girl, later confirmed to be 12, who had climbed over the wall and was looking down at the A12 below.

Mrs Rees said the girl appeared “frozen with fear” and couldn’t move or attempt to get back over to the pavement.

She said: “The ledge on the other side was so small, she was shaking and could easily have tripped and fell.”

Mrs Rees then approached the girl, held her hand and tried to reassure her.

“I told her that I was not going to let her go,” she said.

“She was just a scared young girl and I’m a mother, all my instincts went towards making sure she was ok.”

Mrs Rees held onto the girl before four workmen managed to pull the girl to safety.

Police arrived soon after and she was taken to hospital.

Mrs Rees has now called for the wall on the bridge to be raised to make it harder for vulnerable people to climb over.

She said: “The brick wall needs to be at least two feet taller with some thick wire as right now it is too easy to climb and then not be able to get back over.”

A man was talked down from the bridge on January 25 and Wendy Maguire, 16, fell to her death from a footbridge on the same stretch of road January 13 2012.

Transport for London and Waltham Forest Police have said they are considering CCTV on a footbridge over the North Circular in Chingford where Elif Ormam fell to her death in February.