Daredevil “explorers” diced with death after they illegally scaled a 157ft crane to take dramatic photographs of the Bury skyline.

Two men sneaked under cover of darkness onto the Thornfield Properties site on The Rock to capture the images, before they fled from police officers. One of them told the Bury Times they were from a group called Northern Exploration (NE), which, he claimed, acts in a safe and responsible way — and admitted members had climbed up a crane on another town centre development.

But Bury divisional commander, Chief Superintendent Jon Rush, said: “These people are obviously engaging in a highly dangerous pursuit that puts them at great risk of serious injury and death. I would advise against this kind of activity in the strongest possible terms.

“We carry out regular patrols in Bury town centre and if our officers come across anyone doing something similar, we will not hesitate to take action.”

The incident came to light this week after a man posted photographs on the NE website — nwex.co.uk — that are said to have been taken at about 1am on July 7.

They show the borough landscape, highlighting lights from Tesco, a mammoth office block under construction and a spine-tingling look down to the ground past a labyrinth of steal. One person commenting via the website called the two men’s actions “heroic”.

A 29-year-old man, who would not be named but admitted taking the pictures, told the Bury Times: “I have been doing this for about three years now.

“This is the biggest thing we’ve done in Bury. There are more than 100 people doing it across Greater Manchester.

“We didn’t break and enter — nor would we ever. An opportunity presented itself so we took it. We do sometimes use safety equipment.

“The view from the top was very impressive. I have also been up the other crane off Angouleme Way.

“We are not idiot chavs like some might think. We all know what we’re doing.” He added: “We have a way of doing things and if someone was bragging on the NE forum about doing things differently, we wouldn’t welcome that.

“Everyone does it for the buzz — because a given bit of land is there and supposed to be off limits.

“It’s also a buzz to get those images knowing that very few people have them as well — if anyone.”

A Thornfield Properties spokeswoman said: “We are very concerned about this and have taken steps to improve security on the site.

“We do not want people to put themselves at risk on our land and will be doing all we can to stop incidents of trespass.”