A family was left shaken after a "growling" stranger barged into their home, triggering a ten hour stand-off with police as he camped on their roof.

Colin Walsh, 62, initially forced the unknown man outside, after he wandered through the open front door of the Benson Road property on the morning of July 17.

Charging through the porch, the stranger overpowered Mr Walsh, running upstairs past his wife and his son's girlfriend, before locking himself in a loft-bedroom and climbing out of a window onto the roof.

Closing the entire road, police entered into a lengthy negotiation with the man, who was subsequently taken to hospital and sectioned under the Mental Health Act after agreeing to come down.

Mr Walsh said: "I asked him what he was doing in the house, and he just stared at me, so I pushed him out and told him where to go.

"He was making this strange growling noise. Then he charged toward me so I slammed the door on him.

"He stuck his arm through. I kept on bashing it but he somehow managed to get inside the porch and bolt upstairs, bleeding on the walls as he went.

"My son's girlfriend was upstairs. She bumped into him and he screamed at her and she ran out the house covered in his blood.

"We were forced out of our house for the whole day as the police dealt with the situation."

Mr Walsh, a heating engineer, had returned home to quickly collect forgotten work-tools, leaving the front door open behind him.

Both him and his wife Linda have struggled to deal with the incident, and feel police could have done more to support them in the aftermath.

"At around 7pm it was suddenly over. Police gave me a crime number, told me I needed to sort out the front door with insurance and that was it; we've had no support since," Mr Walsh said.

"I was just in a state of shock.

"My wife's been jumpy and my son's girlfriend has been struggling to sleep.

"We just want to know where he is now to put our minds at rest. It would help if someone could just ring us for some reassurance and so we know what's happening."

A spokesperson for the Met said: "Police were called at 08:47hrs on Wednesday, 17 July to reports of a man on the roof of a property on Benson Road, Croydon.

"Officers attended alongside the London Ambulance Service and the London Fire Brigade.

"The man came down at around 19:14 hours. He has been taken to hospital. He was subsequently sectioned under the Mental Health Act."