Teen dies in 'rooftop run'

2005-08-11 07:57

London - A British teenager died attempting a leap between two buildings, copying the free-running craze, a British newspaper said on Thursday.

Free-running, or parkour, was developed in the Paris suburbs in the 1980s. Expert jumpers leap gracefully across rooftops and run along high ledges.

The sport has become more popular in Britain thanks to a BBC television trailer and a number of television shows.

Alex Leatherbarrow, 14, fell to his death after climbing a 6m high building at his school. His friend made the 1.80m jump to another roof but he did not.

Fellow pupils in Wantage, southern England, laid flowers at the gap.

"From what I understand from health and safety investigators, Alex was looking down sizing up the jump and slipped and fell," local councillor Zoe Patrick told the Daily Mirror.

She warned others could be killed trying the sport.

"This really concerns me. The people in the television adverts glamorise this, but they're trained. Our kids see it and they think they can do it too.

"The tragedy is that this is a life lost for no good reason."

- AFP