Texting climbing instructor leaves girl hanging

An English climbing instructor has been fired after she was filmed ignoring a child stuck on a wall because she was too engrossed sending text messages on her phone.

The distressed girl was left helpless for almost a minute, as the oblivious 19-year-old sits a metre away.

The girl's mother, Jasmine Tseng, filmed the incident on her own phone.

"My daughter is crying up there and she is ON HER PHONE TEXTING!!!" Ms Tseng said in a post on Facebook on Wednesday.

When asked why she did not just drop her phone and help her daughter, she said: "It broke my heart not to run and help my daughter right away. But I needed to capture this as evidence."

The unnamed woman was fired immediately and the Funtopia climbing centre, based in Surrey, has apologised.

"It's really disturbing and definitely not normal. This particular employee broke at least three internal rules, starting with no phones outside of the employees room. I can assure you that she will not work a single minute more in our location," the business said in a statement.