A TEENAGER trapped on the roof of a third floor maisonette for 30 minutes while retrieving a football had to be rescued by firefighters.

Nick Keenan, aged 15, climbed 25ft up a drainpipe before clambering on to the roof ledge at the flat in Chapelfield, Radcliffe.

Firefighters say the teenager then lost his nerve and was unable to climb down.

His friends, with whom he had been playing football, called the fire brigade.

Officers extended a ladder to the roof and helped the youngster down.

But there was one consolation for the teenager, who lives nearby. He found a second football on the same roof!