Wigan teen enjoys the view after climbing to top of Blackpool's massive roller coaster

The 17-year-old, who asked not to be named, and three friends climbed steps to reach the top of the 235ft-high Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

The group was carrying out what is known as “urbexing” - a type of photography involving climbing onto buildings or visiting abandoned or unusual locations.

They went to the theme park at 7pm one day, after it had closed to visitors.

The teenager from Shevington said: “There was a panel ripped off the gate, it was already broken, so all we did was climb through and hop over a gate and we were in the place. We snuck our way to the Pepsi Max.”

They had planned to climb, but because it was raining they used stairs to get up the roller coaster instead.

Once there, they admired the view, took photographs and filmed video.

But they soon had to get down and were detained by police, who took their details.

He said: “We were there for two minutes before security came running round the corner telling us to get down. They tried to get us to delete the photographs. They ended up being really nice and told us we would be banned from the park for life.

“It was probably the best climb I have done. Even though it was rainy and cloudy, the view was so nice.”

It is not the first time the teenager has gone to great heights for photographs, having previously climbed up a tower at Pagefield Mill in Swinley and the DW Stadium.

He recently spent a night in police cells after climbing a crane on a construction site in London.

He said: “I have pretty much climbed everything in my home town so I am going further now. You get people nowadays doing drugs or drinking and stuff like that. I don’t cause any harm doing this. It’s like a hobby.”

He denied he was putting his life at risk.

“I won’t climb something if I know it’s not safe,” he said.

“The roller coaster was just a set of stairs. We planned the climb up. We thought about it as a group. We thought about going another way, but didn’t because it rained and we thought it would be too dangerous. Everything is always planned out.”

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