A "massively dangerous" derelict Patea building will be urgently inspected this morning after an 8-year-old boy fell 7m from the roof to the ground on Sunday afternoon.
The boy, believed to be from the South Island and staying with a local family, was with a group of teenage boys when he fell.
Local man Tiki Munn said a large crowd of locals quickly gathered at the accident site on the Patea River after numerous calls from the cellphones of the older boys.
Patea St John Ambulance attended the boy and the Taranaki Community Rescue Helicopter was called to the Patea Rugby ground to airlift him to Taranaki Base Hospital. He was not badly hurt.
A rescue helicopter spokesman, who was on the job, said every time he saw the old building he thought "how massively dangerous" it was and that something should be done about it.