A SECURITY guard who stopped a man jumping from the sixth floor of Accrington's multi-storey car park has won a national award.

Zain Khan-Kiyani, 32, from Blackburn has already received a police commendation for the incident at the Arndale Centre.

He has now been honoured in the Service to the Customer category at the British Security Industry Association's (BSIA) annual security officer awards.

Mr Khan-Kiyani, who works for EFM Security, was first at the scene, with another colleague, in December 2002, where they found a man sitting on a sixth floor ledge with his legs dangling over.

A call from the company's CCTV office had alerted them to the man, who was threatening to jump from the sixth floor of the centre car park.

Mr Khan-Kiyani spent the next half an hour reassuring the man until police arrived. When the man refused to speak to police the he then acted as a mediator between him and the officers during a two-and-a-half hour operation in freezing temperatures.

He said: "The man was sat opposite the tax office on level six of the car park. He said he was having family problems and was threatening to throw himself off.

"We phoned the police, but he wasn't willing to speak to them. The only person he said he would speak to was me. I just tried to make him realise that there were people who were worse off than him. After two-and-a-half hours I managed to calm him down and get him to come off the car park.

"He returned the day after and was hugging me and thanking me for saving him."

Mr Khan-Kiyani, who has worked at the Arndale for four years and was recently promoted to security manager, was nominated for the award by centre manager, David Jones.

Mr Jones said: "He is a superb guy -- he takes his work very seriously. His relationship with the staff, customers here and with the local police is excellent.

"Everyone here is absolutely over the moon that he has won this award."

David Dickinson, chief executive of the BSIA, who presented Mr Khan-Kiyani with his award at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, said: "Year after year we receive nominations for security officers and teams who are making a real difference to businesses and communities across the UK.

This year's winners deserve, and we happily give, our respect and admiration for their sterling work and are supreme examples of security industry excellence."