Perhaps he was going to be late for double maths, but did he really need to go to such lengths? A teenager in Maidstone, Kent, has become a YouTube star after he was filmed leaping 10 feet from an underpass onto the roof of a single-decker bus as it entered the bus station.

He lies down, then inches his way to the back of the vehicle before jumping onto the road and running away. The 16-second clip, called Bus Jump, has already attracted more than 3,000 hits.

But not everyone praised his daredevil actions. Debbie Riley, a mother of two who lives near the bus station, said: “This is so dangerous. The boy could have been killed.”