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Published 22:45 IST, March 5th 2020

French 'Spiderman' scales 475 feet tower without ropes to raise awareness about COVID-19

France's Alain Robert scaled one of the tallest buildings in Barcelona on March 5. According to reports, he climbed the building without ropes or safety harness

Reported by: Shubham Bose
null | Image: self

A French daredevil climber scaled one of the tallest buildings in Barcelona on March 5. According to reports, he climbed the building with no rope or safety equipment in an effort to protest against the panic over the deadly coronavirus outbreak. Alain Robert climbed the Torre Agbar.

'French Spiderman'

The Torre Agbar is a glass-covered office building that is 145-metres or 475 foot in height.  Alain Robert climbed up the Torre Agbar and then came back down in only 47 minutes. The police that were waiting at the base of the structure, detained the 57-year-old daredevil climber while onlookers applauded his feat.

According to reports, before starting his climb, Roberts told local media that what is more contagious than the coronavirus is fear. He added that there are probably 3 billion people who are scared of the coronavirus because they cannot control it. Robert then claimed that there is a certain type of analogy between his daredevil climbs without safety equipment which causes some fear. He claims that the same is true for the coronavirus and that in his case people can talk about fear that is controlled, fear that is domesticated.

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Alain Robert who has been dubbed as the 'French Spiderman' is famous for his daredevil approach to climbing up buildings with only chalk and no other equipment save his shoes. He has conquered more than 100 structures across the world, with the most notable being Dubai's Burj Khalifa complex, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Malaysia's iconic Petronas Twin Towers, and the Sydney Opera House without safety equipment.

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The deadly coronavirus that has been officially named COVID-19 by the WHO started in China's Hubei province in December last year. The virus has infected 96,777 people and killed 3,308 worldwide.

Updated 22:45 IST, March 5th 2020

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