Parkour springs up amid ruins and conflict

A group of young Palestinians have been garnering international attention through pictures and videos posted totheir Facebook page, showing free runners known astraceurs running, flipping androlling through the ruins of Gaza City.

The group, known asGaza Parkour and Free Running, is not the only one practising the sport of parkour, which originated on the streets of Calais, France, and has found roots in places where poverty and war have put conventional sports out of reach.

Young Afghans practise parkourin the ruins ofDarul Aman Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The Gaza parkour club says it can't compete abroad because a blockade prevents them from travelling.

A group of Iranian women have discovered parkour as an outlet for evading social constraints and dealing with stress.

Parkour has sprung up in war-torn Iraq

and in post-Gadhafi Libya, too.

Egypt hasused parkour to promote its faltering tourism industry.

Feats of strength are still performed on the beaches of Donetsk.

Parkourhas gone mainstream.

Meanwhile, two teens on Manitoba'sPukatawagan First Nation practiseparkour in 30 C.

Justin Bighetty and Anthony Francois, both 18, taught themselves how to do parkour using YouTube, andnow one of their videos is racking up views on Facebook. (More than 36,000 at the time of publication.)