Daredevil climber’s death-defying stunt
A 29-year-old man has been spotted free climbing a 60-storey Melbourne skyscraper on Tuesday morning, with the daring feat captured by onlookers.
Eddie Summerfield sighted the man clambering up the side of the building on the corner of A’Beckett and Elizabeth streets without any climbing equipment.
The free climber was just six levels away from reaching the skyscraper’s rooftop when the video was recorded and posted to X.
The man reached the top of the building about 8.20am without injury.
Lucas Uzzo, a friend of the daredevil climber, filmed the feat from below and confirmed the extreme stunt was completed without any safety gear.
“No parachute, nothing. Only his hands and his feet,” he told the Herald Sun on Tuesday morning.
Mr Uzzo said the climber has previously been arrested for scaling buildings in France and Spain.
Victoria Police said emergency services responded to reports of a person scaling a building in Melbourne West about 7.30am.
Police located the man at the top of the building before escorting him down safely.
Victoria Police said he was assisting with inquiries and was expected to be interviewed at a later date.
It’s understood police have confiscated the climber’s drone.
One Twitter user questioned whether the man could be a famed French rock climber who is often referred to as “the French Spider-Man” or “the Human Spider”
“Thinking it might be notorious French building climber Alain Robert? Has been in this part of the world recently,” the user wrote on X.
Mr Robert has been spotted climbing the Burj Khalifa, Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House and some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers without any equipment or harnesses except for a small bag of chalk and climbing shoes.