French "Spiderman", Alain Robert, was arrested on Monday after he scaled a 57-storey Sydney building, without ropes or a harness, to raise awareness about climate change.
Robert, 48, popularly known as 'Spiderman', climbed the 150-metre Lumiere twin-tower apartment with his bare hands in Sydney at 10:50 am (local time) in about 20 minutes as dozens of onlookers at Bathurst Street cheered him and took snaps.
As the Frenchman reached the top of the building, he unfurled a banner advertising the website www.onehundredmonths.org that claims 100 months from August 2008 it may no longer be possible to avoid potentially irreversible climate change.
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'He is the best at what he does'
"It's a wonderful achievement," Robert's agent Max Markson said.
"He's the best at what he does."
"I am sad he's been arrested, but hopefully he'll get out soon and we can have some champagne," Markson was quoted as saying newsdaily The Sydney Morning Herald.
While police set up a crime scene, passers-by cheered Robert, who has climbed about 80 buildings in the world, including Petronas Twin Towers, the Eiffel Tower and The New York Times building.
'He's got superhuman strength'
Rachel Pepper, 11, could not believe her eyes when she saw the French climbing the building. "I think it's amazing to climb that high without falling."
"He's got superhuman strength."
And so did her Mother Wendy Pepper feels. "It was a nice surprise when we turned the corner and got to see him," the daily quoted her.
Cops were waiting for him at the top
Meanwhile, as Robert reached the top of the building, he found that the police were waiting for him.
He was put into a police van and driven away. Robert was charged with trespass and endangering the safety of another.
Later he was granted "conditional bail" to appear at the Downing Centre Local Court on Friday, media reports said.
All for a cause!
Photographs: Reuters
This was not the first time Robert has been booked for breaking the law in Australia.
Last year, he was fined 750 Australian Dollars for illegally climbing the 41-storey Royal Bank of Scotland building in Sydney.
In June this year, Robert was forced to call off a planned climb of the Deutsche Bank in Sydney after building security guards blocked his access, while in 2003 he was arrested for scaling the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Robert is climbing buildings around the world to raise awareness of global warming and to draw attention to the One Hundred Months campaign.
The Frenchman said in the past he suffered from vertigo, started climbing when he was 12 and was locked out of his home.
Instead of waiting for his parents to return, he scaled eight storeys to get in.
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