A 16-STONE teenager had to be rescued from the ninth storey of a multi-storey car park after falling 15ft on to his back.

Three people got into the locked Millennium car park off St James Street, Burnley, around 10.30pm on Tuesday.

But as they were warming up for a free-running session – where people run and leap across urban landmarks – the youth, named as Kyle Bailey, 17, slipped from a railing.

He fell backwards from the 10th floor on to a covered outdoor sub section on the ninth floor.

His two shocked friends – 17-year-old Danny Hezzlewood, from Padiham, and a 26-year-old man – called 999.

Paramedics asked for assistance from the fire service to get into the locked compound.

They cut the padlock from the main gates and sliced off a barrier as well as taking lighting up to the scene.

Burnley crew manager Alan Ashworth said it was a ‘long job’ as the teenager needed stabilising because of a broken thigh and suspected back, neck and shoulder injuries.

He was eventually helped on to a longboard and taken to Royal Lancaster Infirmary shortly before 12.30am yesterday.

Mr Ashworth said: “We’ve never known there to be any free-running activities at the car park.

“The police were in attendance and I think they had a word with the group.”

A spokesman for the North West Ambulance Service said: “Extreme activities such as free-running might look easy when you see them on TV but they can go very wrong, very quickly, as this boy has discovered.

“Our advice to anyone thinking of taking part in an extreme activity is to leave it to the professionals.”

A police spokesman confirmed they were called to the scene by paramedics just after 11pm.

No arrests were made.

The urban sport of freerunning is also known as parkour.

There are several parkour videos filmed in Burnley town centre on Youtube, showing locations such as Tesco and Lava and Ignite in Hammerton Street.

Free running

  • Free running was inspired by Parkour, which began in France, and incorporates elements of tricking and street stunts.
  • It is a form of urban acrobatics in which participants use the city and rural landscape to perform movements through its structures.
  • The term was coined in the Channel 4 documentaries ‘Jump London’ and ‘Jump Britain’.
  • Movements include the reverse kong vault, eagle flip, 360 wallrun, wall spin, wing spin, wall flip, broken arm spin and palm flip.
  • Free running has featured in films such as Luc Besson’s Taxi and Banlieue 13 as well as music videos, such as Madonna’s hit singles, Jump and Hung Up.