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French ‘Spider-Man” celebrates 60th birthday by scaling 48-storey Paris skyscraper

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.

Published: 18 September 2022 08:57 CEST
French solo free climber Alain Robert is pictured mid-climb as he scales the TotalEnergies tower in Paris' La Defense
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

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.

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.

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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PARIS

Four killed in two Paris apartment fires

At least four people were killed in apartment building fires that broke out overnight in two separate Paris neighbourhoods, police sources and prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Published: 30 April 2024 12:18 CEST
Four killed in two Paris apartment fires

Three bodies were found soon after 8am in a seventh-floor flat near the Opera Garnier in the centre of the French capital. The blaze on the Boulevard des Italiens is believed to have started between 4am and 5am.

Those killed “couldn’t get out of the window because of bars installed to prevent burglars getting in via the roof,” said Ariel Weil, mayor of the city’s four central districts.

“Around 10 people living on the same floor were rescued by firefighters who got in through the roof,” he added.

Weil and a police source said investigators were looking into whether the fire could have started with a gas leak.

ANALYSIS Why do Paris apartment fires so often prove fatal?

Several firefighting vehicles were still on the scene by late morning, an AFP journalist saw, while central Paris prosecutors have opened an investigation.

Prosecutors are also probing a second deadly fire in the 15th district, near the Eiffel Tower in western Paris.

“A 60-year-old person was found dead and another is in critical condition, with two in serious condition,” investigators said.

A second police source said a woman had been killed after the fire apparently broke out in her apartment.

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