WATCH: Horrific moment man plummets 25ft from roof captured on video by Sheffield magician

This is the horrific moment a man plummeted 25ft from a roof after a 'drunken' stunt went horribly wrong.
Blackpool Winter Gardens. (Photo: Michael Beckwith).Blackpool Winter Gardens. (Photo: Michael Beckwith).
Blackpool Winter Gardens. (Photo: Michael Beckwith).

In the shocking footage, a man can be seen swinging from rafter to rafter at Blackpool's Winter Gardens before losing his grip and plunging to the floor with a sickening thud.

Amazingly the man survived the drop onto a hard tiled floor and is currently recovering in hospital from his injuries.

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Sheffield conjurer Arron Jones witnessed the dramatic scenes at the annual Blackpool Magic Convention, which was held in the resort last weekend.

Mr Jones, 23, watched as the man clambered up to the roof of the building and then began swinging from the rafters while shocked crowds below look on.

Panicked shouts can be heard as the man falls and hits the ground, landing flat on his back and banging his head.

Mr Jones told the Daily Mail : 'It was past midnight on the Sunday and some people had stayed back after the last show on Saturday.

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"All of a sudden I saw this guy start to shimmy up on of the pillars to the roof. I was just stood there thinking 'what is this idiot doing?"

"I heard he had been drinking but I don't know why he decided to go up there. The bouncers came out and were shouting at him to get down but he just told them 'no' and carried on going.

"When he got onto the steel beams it suddenly got really serious. The atmosphere in the hall completely changed. No one knew what to do or why he was doing it.

"When he got to the top there was no point telling him to stop. He either had to keep going or come back.

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"He was trying to turn around when he lost his grip and fell. It was terrifying - let's put it this way, the loudest scream you hear on the video was mine.

"I had such a visceral reaction, just sound came out. It's something I never thought I would see and as he hit the ground there was a loud thud.

'The first thing I did was check if he was breathing. We all thought he was dead, that we had just watched him kill himself.

"He could have broken his neck or his spine. He is so lucky to be alive. I think he got away with just a broken arm and hip."

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After the harrowing incident, which took place at about 12.30am on Sunday, an ambulance was called and the man was rushed to the Royal Preston Hospital, where he remains.

Fellow magician David Penn, who also witnessed the fall, said the man's 'reckless' actions could have been a game of one-upmanship fuelled by alcohol.

He said: 'At the convention you get magicians coming to show their latest tricks and you get some people that want to outdo each other.

'Then when alcohol gets involved, people start to believe they really are magic. When he fell, I turned away, I couldn't watch - and I just heard this crack as he hit the ground."

Organisers Blackpool Magic Club (BMC) declined to comment on the incident.