Workers in Woden have described the "terrifying moment" they saw a group of young people with their feet dangling from the roofs of two abandoned buildings.
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On Monday afternoon, Department of Health staff in the building across spotted the youths on top of the nine-storey Alexander and Albemarle buildings, which have sat vacant for seven years awaiting demolition.
"They were jumping from one roof to another," one worker said.
She said her department had watched the site become a target for vandals "with great alarm" since Health staff were moved out of the buildings, but things had "gotten worse" over the past few days.
"No one seems prepared to do anything about it," she said. "We're absolutely concerned for our safety, every day we have to walk right past it down a narrow walkway and things could be falling from the windows.
"There's smashed glass everywhere and now they've started throwing out all the window frames too."
ACT Policing confirmed the force visited the Abemarle building on Monday afternoon after receiving reports that a group of youths were on-site. At least two people were sighted again on the rooftops on Tuesday afternoon.
"No arrests were made at this time," a spokeswoman said of Monday's incident.
"Investigations are ongoing."
The owner of the premises, Doma, hopes to lodge a development application for the buildings "in the near future". Managing director Jure Domazet said the territory's lease variation taxes had rendered demolition unfeasible but the company was now planning to repurpose the former Health buildings into residential apartments.
"Our design team is embracing the reuse concept and the apartments will not be the standard Gyprock box that the Woden market is used to," he said.
"The development will be the least dense residential development in Woden with extensive private landscaped area and will be very affordable.
"We will also have a childcare centre, a cafe and some other non-residential uses on the ground floor."
For now, Mr Domazet said, the buildings were fenced and the stairways and basement entries bricked in with regular security patrols of the site.
He called for parents to better supervise their children.
"I am told that it is not just a problem for our buildings and that unsupervised kids are entering a lot of the empty buildings at Woden," he said.
The Woden community has long called for action on the derelict buildings.
On social media, residents labelled the site "the biggest eyesore in Canberra", with some Facebook users calling it "a wasteland, like something out of Detroit" or "straight from the Soviet era".
On Monday evening, concerned workers sent photos of the incident to the office of ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr.
A spokesman for Mr Barr said it was a matter for police and the owner of the buildings, and did not confirm whether he had received the photos or passed them on.
