Alain Robert

Upon reaching the 60th floor, he allowed himself to be apprehended.

He flew the Malaysian flag and drew applause from waiting police, fire crew and media representatives before handing himself in.

He was handcuffed and escorted off the premises before being driven to a police station.

Alain Robert (born as Robert Alain Philippe on 7 August 1962) is a French rock climber and urban climber.

Known as "the French Spider-Man" or "the Human Spider", Robert is famous for his free solo climbing, scaling skyscrapers using no climbing equipment except for a small bag of chalk and a pair of climbing shoes.

Because authorities do not normally give him permission for such dangerous exploits, Robert appears at dawn on the site of whichever giant skyscraper he has chosen to climb.

His exploits attract crowds of onlookers who stop to watch him climb.

As a consequence, Robert has been arrested many times, in various countries, by law enforcement officials waiting for him at the end of his climb.

In recent years, however, Robert has done his climbs with permission and sponsorship.

His rock-climbing physical training and technique allow him to climb using the small protrusions of building walls and windows (such as window ledges and frames).

Many of his climbs provide him no opportunity to rest and can last several hours.

He sometimes has a small bag of climbing chalk powder fastened around his waist.

Robert has climbed landmarks including the Burj Khalifa, Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House and the Montparnasse Tower as well as other of the world's tallest skyscrapers, most of them performed free-solo.

On 20 March 1997, he climbed the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia but was arrested at the 60th floor, 28 floors below the top.

On 16 April 1998, he climbed the 23 m high Luxor Obelisk in Paris.

In June 1999, Robert climbed the 170 m Marriott Hotel in Warsaw.

On 20 August 1999, he climbed the Sears Tower, the second man to do so after Dan Goodwin.

However, Robert performed the climb with no equipment other than a chalk bag and shoes, while Goodwin used suction cups and sky hooks, wearing a homemade Spider-Man suit.

On 21 February 2003, he legally climbed the 200 m National Bank of Abu Dhabi, UAE, watched by about 100,000 spectators.

It became more frequent for Robert to be paid to scale buildings as part of publicity efforts.

On 12 May 2003, he was paid approximately $18,000 to climb the 95 m Lloyd's building to promote the premiere of the movie Spider-Man on the British television channel Sky Movies.

On 19 October 2004, he scaled the 187 m headquarters of the French oil company Total while wearing a Spider-Man costume.

On 25 December 2004, Robert scaled Taipei 101 a few days before its grand opening as the tallest building in the world.

The 508 m climb was legal, part of the week's festivities.

The skyscraper's outwardly slanting sides posed no apparent difficulty for him, but heavy rain resulted in a climb lasting four hours—double his estimate.

On 11 June 2005, he climbed the Cheung Kong Centre in Hong Kong, scaling 283 m to reach the top of the 62-story tower.

On 1 September 2006, he climbed the tallest building in Lithuania and the Baltic States – Europa Tower, 148 m, in Vilnius.

Wearing a black suit and using a safety rope, which he detached several times, he reached the observation deck of the building, 114 m, in 40 minutes.

In 2006 he also climbed Torre Vasco da Gama in Portugal as part of an advertisement for Optimus, a national mobile operator.

On 7 December 2006, he finished the year climbing the Santa Fe World Plaza in Mexico City.

On 23 February 2007, he legally climbed the headquarters building of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) on the coast of Abu Dhabi.

On 20 March 2007, he again climbed the Petronas Twin Towers, marking the tenth anniversary of his previous ascent of this building.

On 31 May 2007, he scaled the 88-story Jin Mao Building in Shanghai, China's then-tallest building, once again wearing a Spider-Man costume.

He was subsequently arrested and jailed for five days before being expelled from China.

On 4 September 2007, he climbed the 244 m Federation Tower office building in Moscow, (Russia's tallest skyscraper).

He was detained by police afterwards.

On 18 November 2007, Robert climbed the 1518 m Tianmen mountain despite initially being banned from China for five years earlier in May, after being invited by the local government of Zhangjiajie, a scenic region in the southern province of Hunan, to boost the profile of the region and bring in tourists.

On 18 December 2007, he climbed the 29-story Portland House office building in London (Westminster's tallest building).

It took him just over 40 minutes.

Police taped off the area and later arrested him for criminal damage and wasting police time.