THE DARING STUNT CLIMBER known as the ‘French Spiderman’ has been arrested in Sydney moments after scaling a 57-storey building with no equipment.
Alain Robert reached the top of the building shortly before 11am local time as a crowd gathered below on the street cheered.
It took Robert, who works only with his hands and uses no safety equipment, just 20 minutes to climb the building.
Police arrested Robert almost immediately after his ascension. Mark Cristie of the New South Wales police said authorities took a very dim view on this behaviour: ”We’ll be prosecuting him to the full extent of the law.”
A number of streets were closed by police during the stunt.
This video by ITN News shows footage of the Frenchman’s daring climb:
Hi agent Max Markson said afterwards that it was a “wonderful achievement”, and was looking forward to celebrating with Robert upon his release:
I’m sad he’s been arrested, but hopefully he’ll get out soon and we can have some champagne.
No stranger to the law
Robert was arrested in 2003 for climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and was fined for climbing the Royal Bank of Scotland building in the city centre in 2009. Earlier this summer, he was prevented from climbing the Deutsche Bank in Sydney by the building’s security staff.
In this video, Sydney residents give their responses to Robert’s efforts:
Despite suffering from vertigo, Robert has climbed over 80 buildings as part of his efforts to draw attention to the 100 months campaign, which claims that within 100 months of August 2008, it may no longer be possible to reverse climate change.
Robert has climbed the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, Sears Tower in Chicago, the Eiffel Tower, and the New York Times Building.
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