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French 'Spider-Man" celebrates 60th birthday by scaling 48-storey Paris skyscraper

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French 'Spider-Man" celebrates 60th birthday by scaling 48-storey Paris skyscraper
French solo free climber Alain Robert is pictured mid-climb as he scales the TotalEnergies tower in Paris' La Defense in January 2020. On Saturday 17th September 2022, he did it again. Photo: Thomas SAMSON / AFP

French free climber Alain Robert, commonly known as France's 'Spider-Man', marked his 60th birthday by climbing a 48-storey building in Paris without any safety equipment on Saturday.

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He scaled the 187-metre Tour TotalEnergies in the La Defense business district in Paris.

"I want to send people the message that being 60 years' old is nothing. You can still do sport, be active, do fabulous things," he told Reuters news agency.

"I promised myself several years ago that when I reached 60, I would climb that tower again because 60 symbolises retirement age in France and I thought that was a nice touch," he added.

But once he reached the top of the tower, he was reportedly arrested, according to local French news site Defense-92.

Robert is pictured as he's in the process of climbing the tower in the below tweet from Defense-92.

[embed]https://twitter.com/Defense_92/status/1571057713848942592[/embed]

He also wanted to raise awareness of the need for climate change action by making the climb, Reuters reported.

Since he began climbing in 1975, Robert has become well known for his daring feats, climbing over 150 tall buildings around the world – including the world's tallest, Dubai's Burj Khalifa.

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He never uses a harness and relies solely on a small bag of chalk, his climbing shoes and his impressive rock-climbing skills.

But because he doesn't always request permission before starting a climb, he's also been arrested numerous times.

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