Police close roads around Heron Tower as ‘French Spiderman’ ascends Salesforce’s building
A real-life Spiderman scaled the 754ft high Heron tower today, leading police to close roads around the area.
Alain Robert, who has also climbed the Empire State Building and some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, made the ascent – where Salesforce is headquartered in the UK – without any safety gear or even a rope.
The stunt led Canada Police to close roads from Camomile Street down to Bevis Marks after arriving on the scene at 1.37pm, urging people to avoid the area.
A 56-year-old man was taken into custody for causing a public nuisance, police confirmed.
The daredevil climb is understood to be part of a promotion of Dead Man’s Fingers rum.
Robert’s ascent of the 754ft tall Heron Tower – where Salesforce is headquartered in the UK – is his first climb in London in nine years.
Last time he came to the capital, The Shard’s owners took out a High Court injunction to prevent him climbing the London landmark.
He has scaled the Lloyds Building twice – in 2004 and 2009 – and also climbed Portland House in 2008.
The so-called ‘French Spiderman’ has also scaled Dubai’s 2,722ft tall Burj Khalifa skyscraper, Taiwan’s Taipei 101, which stands 1,671 ft tall, and Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas building.
Commander Karen Baxter said: “The incident this afternoon has had a considerable impact on police, other emergency services and the local community. Our officers, the London Fire Brigade and the London Ambulance Service all attended this incident taking them away from genuine emergencies.
"Road closures meant a significant disturbance to local transport and businesses and their staff located in the building were also considerably affected.
“While the incident has caused immense disruption to everyday business in Canada it also posed a significant level of risk to the safety of people in and around Heron Tower at the time.”