A TEN-year-old boy escaped with a sprained ankle and facial cuts after falling 15ft through a skylight at Padiham Pool.

Jason Cawtherley, of Park Road, Padiham, had been playing on top of the flat-roof building with his friend Shane Marcola, 10, of Church Street, Padiham, at about 9pm last night.

He was standing on a plastic skylight when it gave way and he dragged his friend half into the building and fell 15ft on to the concrete changing room floor.

Police, firefighters and paramedics were called.

Sub Officer Duncan Brown, from Padiham fire station, said: "We put a ladder up and helped Shane off the roof. He had a few small cuts on his chest where he had been dragged into the skylight which Jason had fallen through.

"The roof of a swimming pool is not a place where children should be playing. He was very lucky to escape with just minor injuries.

"Had he fallen on his head or his back we could have been looking at very serious broken bones or even a fatal accident."

Paramedics took Jason to Burnley General Hospital for treatment, and he was allowed home later.

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