Teen lucky to escape with his life after fall from x-building

People who climb on the building on the Watt/Wicksteed St intersection are placing themselves in danger, and at night they would not see the slippery moss that clings to the concrete. PHOTO/FILE

The building from which a teenager fell on Friday night is a popular but perilous place for young people to climb says the owner.

The 19-year old who fell from the Work and Income building on the Watt/Wicksteed St intersection in Wanganui is lucky to have survived his fall, said Noel Cooper, who has seen CCTV footage of the incident.

The teenager fell through a glass pane in the verandah from the third floor of the building, it is believed.

He was taken to Wanganui Hospital and then airlifted to Waikato Hospital in a critical condition. Yesterday he was stable in a ward at Waikato.

Mr Cooper said he felt sorry for the young man who has paid a high price for being on the building, but he should never have been there.

The teenager is not the only one who has climbed onto the building, but to Mr Cooper's knowledge, he is the first to have fallen.

Mr Cooper said it was an ongoing problem with young people climbing the building and throwing cans and smashing the glass verandah.

"It's very expensive. Two panes costs $880."

Five glass panes have been broken over time, Mr Cooper said.

The building is attractive to climb. It is known as criss cross castle colloquially, or the X building.

What the climbers don't know is that moss grows on the concrete, and in the dark it cannot be seen.

"It is slippery and very dangerous," he warned.

A staff member of one of the building's tenants, Montgomery Watson Harza , said they saw climbers on the building all the time.

"We tell them to get off but it falls on deaf ears."

Mr Cooper said the police were concerned and were patrolling the area, and there is CCTV that films the climbers' activities.