POLICE in North-West Durham are warning youngsters to stay off a television mast in the area before someone is badly hurt or killed.

At about 7.50pm on Sunday night a group of at least four youths broke into a compound, at Burnhope, and smashed several windows and caused other damage before starting to climb the 250ft mast.

They got about 40ft up before abandoning their attempts to go higher. It is at least the third such offence on the compound in the past few weeks, and both the operators, media company ntl, and the police are concerned at the risk.

PC Philip Hinton of Consett police said: "The dangers involved are huge. The mast involves high voltage cables and there are wires and power generators everywhere.

"If one of the kids touched these they could go up in a puff of blue smoke. We cannot stress too highly how dangerous and foolish this is, but unfortunately they seem to be getting bolder each time."

There are CCTV cameras on the site and police say that anyone caught will be prosecuted