Ananova:

A German who fell off a roof while sleepwalking said he lost his balance because he woke up.

The man climbed out of a first-floor window, shimmied up a drainpipe and walked across the roof before falling 20 feet to the ground.

He told rescuers that he lost his balance after waking up and realising where he was.

Thomas Manninger, 39, from Eltville, said he had often woken up in different parts of the house after sleepwalking, but this was the first time he had ended up on the roof.

He said: "I must have been having a very strange dream."

A police spokesman said: "The only thing that saved him was the fact that he fell onto a lawn that was still soggy from the rain."

Mr Manninger was taken to hospital, where doctors said he had a few bruises but no broken bones.

He has now been booked into a specialist sleep laboratory in Frankfurt for a course of therapy.