An urban leap of faith

Leaping across a concrete chasm they hang in mid-air, as if suspended by invisible wires, before landing gracefully. No springs, no safety harness, no ropes - just the human body defying gravity.

This stunning sequence of photographs sheds light on the latest extreme-sports craze to hit the capital.

Inspired by the French sport of parkour, British practitioners have started gathering at the South Bank Centre to pit their strength and agility against the maze of walls, ledges and walkways.

Free-runners, as they call themselves, have turned the arts complex into their concrete playground, leaping up to 10 feet between buildings that tower above ground.

But while the South Bank Centre may have grown tolerant of skateboarders showing off their tricks on its concrete slopes, it is not yet ready to welcome free-runners.

London's leading free-runner Paul Corkery, 30, said: "There are security guards on the South Bank that move you on, and if you get up on roofs then that is illegal and you can get into trouble." He says the aim of parkour "is not to pull stupid stunts, it is about fluency. Most of it is not about risk-taking; everything we do is calculated".

Parkour combines martial arts with athletics training, and for many of the 1,000 people in Britain estimated to take part it offers an exciting new way of traversing the urban landscape.

Mr Corkery said: "Everyone has their own philosophy but the thing is discipline and focus. Everyone is there helping each other out. You don't have to be an athlete to do it, there is no set format to follow and you don't need any kind of background in martial arts or sport."

The sport gained new prominence after a Channel 4 documentary, Jump London, featured free-runners testing their skills on London landmarks including the Royal Albert Hall and HMS Belfast.

However, the film sparked a wave of imitators not equipped to handle the dangers. Mr Corkery said: "We had youngsters getting injured. So we set up some indoor training centres to teach the basics."

He has created a website, urbanfreeflow.com, to encourage parkour in Britain. The site gets 17,000 hits a day, and he now aims to establish a Parkour Federation - although he does not want to see it recognised as an Olympic sport: "I would like to see it recognised as legitimate. I want to see it grow healthily."

The website features a listings guide for some of the best parkour locations in London, including Royal Oak and Edgware town centre.

But it also draws attention to the dangers: it features images of a freerunner who split his head open trying out an "ambitious leap".

"Risk taking is something that the art is NOT about," it warns.