Isle of Man's former prison yard hosts street skills

Teenagers will be kicking balls into a skip in the old prison yard

Douglas's former prison will be used by Manx teenagers to practise their street football and free-running skills later.

Police and the island's youth service have teamed up to offer young people an urban street sport event to try and deter them from anti-social behaviour.

The free event, for over-12s, will be staged in the exercise yard of the former prison at Victoria Road from 1930 BST.

If successful, organisers have pledged to follow it up with similar events.

Youth worker Jackie Fisher said: "It's aimed at young people being creative and encouraging them into something positive to distract them from anti social activities on a Friday night.

"This is a pilot scheme and we have lots of ideas for follow-up events in the future.

"Free-running has a bad press at the moment but this is to show how much skill is involved."

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