What an idiot! Youth dices with death dangling by one arm from 100ft Wigan chimney

Onlookers at ground level filming the idiot’s antics are at first laughingly admiring but then become concerned that he doesn’t kill himself as he climbs over the railings and suspends himself by his fingers from the 100ft structure at the Pagefield Building.

Happily the youngster, who can be seen accompanied by several fellow trespassers, does not come to grief.

But this latest terrifying evidence of death-defying high jinks again calls into question security at the site overlooking Mesnes Park in Swinley. Youngsters have been breaking into the former mill building - which later served as a Wigan and Leigh College annexe - for years now.

It has become a particular menace for the fire service, whose 999 crews have repeatedly been forced to take risks putting out fires deliberately lit in the unsafe premises. There have been repeated warnings to would-be trespassers about the risks of accidents, but that has clearly failed to deter some.

In 2018 the then 17-year-old Adam Lockwood rose to notoriety by taking a selfie clinging onto the Pagefield chimney railing with one hand. He has since developed his online media reputation as the “Little Nuisance” and recently filmed himself performing stomach-churning aerial stunts on top of structures in Benidorm.

After a large fire last May, local councillor George Davies called for the redundant buildings to be demolished, saying: “Our priority is the safety of our residents who live nearby and our emergency workers. I bet they are sick to death of it. I am hoping no fatalities occur in that building.”

Wigan Council has in the past said it is in ongoing talks with the owners about its future use and impressing on them the importance of maintaining tight security.