France's Spiderman upstaged

France's Spiderman was not alone when he scaled a New York skyscraper to raise awareness of global warming.

Just hours after Alain Robert, 45, became the first person to scale the 52-floor building, another climber made an apparent copycat ascent.

Ahead of his climb up The New York Times building on UN World Environment Day, the Frenchman said his aim was "to raise awareness of global warming - since this is one of the main problems for our time."

His manager Julie Cohen said she knew nothing about the second climber: "I'm mortified, he's absolutely nothing to do with us, this is really upsetting.

"Alain is going to be really upset by this," she said, adding that while his climbs are not without risk, he was a professional climber.

Mr Robert climbed without equipment besides chalk for his hands and climbing shoes. He was greeted at the top by police who arrested him.

The second climber also was arrested following his ascent during rush hour, which drew big crowds and was shown live on at least one TV station.

Several people in the crowd shouted "Jump" when he stopped to rest half way up, but there was a loud cheer as he reached the top.

Wearing red pants, black climbing shoes and a white T-shirt that read Malaria No More, the man laughed as he was led handcuffed from the building.

"We definitely don't look at him as a modern day Spiderman," said policeman James Coll.

"We look at him as somebody who not only put responders lives at risk but members of the public as well."

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.

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