Children dicing with death

Bromsgrove police have issued a safety warning following reports of youths climbing onto the roofs of High Street shops and jumping across them.

Police spokeswoman Julie Wedgbury said girls and boys, aged 12 to 14, had repeatedly been spotted on the 40ft high roof of the Business Centre after hours.

It is believed they are attempting to imitate the fashionable and highly dangerous sport of roof jumping, which recently featured on a BBC promotional advert.

PC Mike Morton, from Bromsgrove police, said: "This activity may seem like fun to those involved but it is an extremely dangerous practise and one we want to discourage.

"Someone could easily fall and suffer serious injuries."

Police have passed on their concerns about roof jumping to pupils at North Bromsgrove High School, as it is believed the culprits are on their registers.

Clive Pemberton, the headteacher at North Bromsgrove High School, said: "All we can do is pass on the safety message given out by the police to our students."

He said that because the incidents were taking place out of hours it was not directly an issue for the school.

"However," he added: "Having said this, as part of the community we want to try and make sure our pupils are safe at all times."

However, June Longmuir, Worcestershire county councillor responsible for education, said what children do outside school is solely the responsibility of the parents.

"The police obviously went into the school because they had a captive audience."

PC Morton went on to say: "We would also urge parents to talk to their children about the dangers of climbing up and playing on the top of these buildings in the town centre.

"We will continue to monitor the area and hope that for everyone's safety police warnings will be heeded."

On Sunday afternoon, Bromsgrove firefighters rescued a young boy who had climbed on to the roof of the public toilets in Crown Close. He was not injured.