HORRIFIED onlookers have described the moment a young woman plunged to her death from a pub roof after the guttering she was clinging to gave way.

Shocked witnesses say the woman frantically scrambled to grip to the roof of the derelict Wellington Arms pub, in Whitley Street, before tumbling 25 feet onto railings below.

Onlookers in a 150-strong crowd, including schoolchildren, say the woman screamed as she fell, with the horror unfolding in 10 seconds.

Asam Aziz, who works at Express Fitness opposite the former pub, described the woman as in her early 20s. She is believed to have been local.

Speaking to the Chronicle on Wednesday, he said: “She was standing up there and the police were talking to her telling her to get down. She tried to move but she slipped and then tried first to hold onto the brickwork at the top, then onto a pipe and finally the guttering. Then she fell back first. It was terrible.”

Police confirmed they were called at around 6pm on Tuesday to a “fear for welfare” incident after reports of a woman on the roof.

The road was closed for more than three hours while officers were at the scene and the woman was taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital, but died from her injuries.

Paul Mcdonald, who lives in Spring Terrace, said: “It must’ve been half an hour after the police started talking to her that she started to stand up and navigate her way back across the roof top. She was holding onto the roof tiles and shuffling herself along and then they all just went. She was like a cat clawing to stay there.

“She came down and she was hanging by her right hand off the guttering. The guttering started to give way, she lost grip and she changed to her left hand and then slipped and came down. It’d have to be a miracle to survive that.”

Officers say the incident is not being treated as suspicious, but it has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). Spokeswoman Hannah Williams said this is standard procedure for incidents involving a death where police are present.

A woman who has lived in Whitley Street for 20 years and asked not to be named said: “It’s just absolutely tragic. I am so sad for her and her family. What a waste of such a young life.”