Saturday, June 11, 2005

'Spiderman' scales HK skyscraper

French urban climber who calls himself "spiderman" has scaled a 62-story Hong Kong skyscraper barehanded.



Alain Robert, 42, scrambles up the Cheung Kong Center in Hong Kong.

Wearing only a pair of red pants, Alain Robert, 42, scrambled up the Cheung Kong Center on Saturday -- the flagship building of Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing -- in about an hour. He said the building was 283 meters (928 feet) tall.

During his climb, Robert rested several times and even answered a reporter's phone calls.

"I can't talk to you right now. I'm climbing," said Robert, renowned for scaling buildings without ropes or other equipment.

After reaching the top of the building, he waved to a small crowd of spectators on the ground below. He said he was greeted by police, firefighters and security guards at the top of the building.

Police officers checked his passport but did not arrest him, even though he had not sought permission to climb the building.

"Everyone was very nice," Robert said, adding that the climb was not too difficult.

"On a scale of one to 10 in terms of difficulty, this would be a five," he said.

The building's Web site did not provide any information about its height.

In December, Robert scaled the world's tallest building, Taiwan's Taipei 101. It took him nearly four hours to reach the top of the 508-meter (1,679-foot) building -- nearly twice as long as he had expected -- because it was raining.

His other feats include scaling Malaysia's Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Empire State Building in New York. --The Associated Press.

1 comment:

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