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"Spiderman" climbs Sydney building into police net

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-08-31 09:31

A French daredevil climber who has scaled skyscrapers around the world was arrested in Sydney on Monday after climbing a 57-storey building and into the arms of waiting police.

Alain Robert, 48, who is also known as the French Spiderman, was taken into police custody when he reached the top of the 57-storey Lumiere Building in central Sydney on Monday morning.

Robert, 48, took 20 minutes to scale the 151 meter (495 feet) tall building using just his bare hands and without safety equipment, cheered on by a crowd of about 100 onlookers.

"It's a wonderful achievement," his agent Max Markson told reporters. "He's the best at what he does. I'm sad he's been arrested, but hopefully he'll get out soon and we can have some champagne."

Robert has been arrested many times in various countries as authorities rarely give permission for his dangerous climbs.

In Australia he was last arrested last year and fined $750 for illegally climbing the 41-storey Royal Bank of Scotland building in central Sydney.

In 2003, he scaled the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

A police statement said the French national was charged with risking the safety of another by climbing a building and entering enclosed land. He was granted conditional bail and is due to appear in court on September 3.

Robert first climbed a building at the age of 12 when he got locked out of his apartment and decided to mount the eight stories up to an open window.

He has since climbed more than 80 buildings around the world including Chicago's Sears Tower and Taipei 101 in Taiwan.