A GROUP of so-called urban explorers sneaked into Great Western Hospital and made it to the roof before they were found by security guards.

Their escapades were filmed and uploaded to YouTube. The two minute video sees the group apparently in an upper-floor maintenance room before making it onto the roof of the main hospital building.

The cameraman peeks over the edge of the central courtyard, with a children’s ward play area at the bottom of the three-floor drop. The group can then be seen riding the lift to a lower floor.

Hospital chiefs criticised the adventurers. Rupert Turk, director of estates and facilities at GWH, said: “Our security team approached five individuals in unauthorised areas of the hospital and reported the incident to Wiltshire Police.

“The individuals forced entry into a locked plant room and accessed the roof compromising their own safety and the safety of others.

“We have a security team on-site 24/7 that works closely with Wiltshire Police and strong surveillance systems throughout the hospital to ensure the safety of patients, staff and visitors.”

The group responsible for the incident, Kirbz Vids, has posted more than 70 videos to its YouTube channel. The explorers can be seen breaking in to Swindon landmarks, such as the Lorcano, and sites further afield – including the Bethel Quarry cannabis farm near Bradford-on-Avon that was raided by police in 2018.

In December, the Adver group sneaked into the David Murray John Tower before breaking in to the Brunel shopping centre.

A spokesman for Kirbz Vids said: “What I enjoy about exploring is being somewhere no one else can get to or has seen for years. It’s the joy of seeing the past of an old building.

“No matter what type of urban exploring you do, you always get accused of trespass or breaking something.

“Every place I have visited has been open, so if it’s open then I’m exploring it.

“The problem with today is that people go out and cause a lot of damage to things. Then, when people like us just want to go and explore, we get [labelled] thugs.”

After the DMJ video came to light, the group was heavily criticised by the council and the owners of the Brunel shopping centre.

A spokesman for Swindon Borough Council, which owns the DMJ, said: “It is safe to say that the people who shot the video are irresponsible trespassers who shouldn’t have been there.”

Jane Stewart, centre manager for The Brunel, said: “We do not condone this risk to life by thrill-seeking and any trespass on our property will be robustly dealt with.”