'It is dangerous' - Children as young as 11 free running over Shrewsbury town centre rooftops
Children as young as 11 are risking serious injury by running over rooftops in Shrewsbury.
West Mercia Police said today that youngsters practising daredevil hobby free running have been seen jumping from roof to roof in the town centre.
In the last six months, the force has received a number of reports of people jumping from roof to roof in the town centre.
Sergeant Richard Coles said he is warning people not to risk injury by taking part in the activity.
He said: "While free running and climbing on buildings is not a crime, we can deal with it via community protection orders.
"Damage was caused to a window at Miller Evans on Tuesday night and about three weeks ago we had reports of youngsters aged between 11 and 15 years old on the back of buildings in Barker Street.
"By the time officers had got to the scene they had gone.
"If they want to do it they should do it elsewhere.
"The town centre is not the place for them to be trying it out. If they cause damage to property we will pursue it.
"We have had other reports of people free running on High Street and this was in broad daylight. Of course, if a member of the public sees someone on the roof of a building they are going to think they are about to jump.
"In regard to the latest incident we found a footprint close by which was small and suggests that the person was quite young.
"We would encourage them to carry out their past time somewhere else."
Councillor Peter Nutting who represents the Copthorne ward on Shrewsbury Town Council and has a shop in the heart of Shrewsbury said it could damage the town's older buildings and lead to injury if one of the free runners fell to the ground.
He said: "I know how dangerous free running is and it is certainly not something I would encourage.
"It is particularly dangerous in a town like Shrewsbury where many of the buildings are old and the roofs are in a poor state of repair.
"Not only could these people cause themselves serious injury they could also damage the structure of the buildings."
Freerunning is an acrobatic and athletic discipline founded by Sébastien Foucan.
Foucan started what he termed free running in 2003, which he developed as a more inclusive form of parkour.
Free running is a version of parkour that includes acrobatic moves that are purely aesthetic, most practitioners do this art fluidly.
Free runners scale buildings without the use of ropes and jump from roof to roof in a series of athletic and gymnastic moves.
