This was the moment a fearless worker made the first sledgehammer blows - single-handedly demolishing an old hotel.<br /><br />The one-man wrecking squad placed a huge banner over the derelict building in Chaing Mai, northern Thailand, on August 11. <br /><br />He then clambered onto the roof to begin the painstaking and highly dangerous job of tearing down the 12 storey block.<br /><br />Footage shows him striking the first chunks of concrete from the canopy of the building, beginning the two-year-long job.<br /><br />Bureaucracy, strict laws, high costs and a lack of specialists make dynamite demolitions in Thailand near impossible so almost all of the derelict buildings have to be picked apart by hand.<br /><br />Speaking today, the man in the video said: ''We just started this month. The building used to be a hotel. <br /><br />''I drilled some of the concrete first to weaken it then we started the work with the sledgehammer.<br /><br />''We are not allowed to use dynamite to demolish buildings here. Everything must be done by hand. So it's very difficult.<br /><br />''A hospital will be built here when we're finished. But it's going to take a long time to finish the job.''
