These pictures taken from footage showing a Russian teenager climbing around a crane 1,000ft up in the sky are enough to make your palms sweat even if you have never suffered from vertigo.

The youth is seen walking along the crane as if it were a tightrope, without showing even a flicker of fear at being so far from the ground.

Without a safety harness, hard hat or even a rope, he confidently walks – and even skips – along the red metal crane in his trainers.

The three-minute clip, posted on Youtube, shows his astonishing courage (or should that read foolhardiness?) as he casually strips off his jumper and puts on a woolly hat for his sky-high work-out

The boy, who looks little older than 16 or 17, then climbs over the side and hangs from just one hand.

The cars in the street below are so tiny they look like toys as he does monkey bars dangling off the crane.

Eventually, just when the viewer’s nerves can take it no longer, the film stops with the logo Dangerous For Life.

It has already been viewed by tens of thousands of armchair adventurers, though most of those who commented on Youtube realised the danger the youth was putting himself in.

One wrote: This crazy kid is probably going to be responsible for so many tragic deaths, if not his own.