Scores of Sydney office workers watched in awe as French climber Alain Robert, the self-described ‘Spiderman’, climbed past their window without a safety harness on his way to the top of a high-rise city building earlier today.

The Frenchman, known for scaling buildings around the world with his bare hands, climbed the 41-storey Royal Bank of Scotland office block in the centre of Sydney as hundreds of onlookers watched on from the street below. Even the window washers dangling outside adjacent buildings stopped to watch his ascent.

His stunt, which was sponsored by a local men’s magazine and was aimed at raising awareness of climate change, stopped traffic on the busy street below. He even paused to chat to onlookers as he dangled from the exterior of the building about half way up, and sent a text message on his mobile phone. The crowd cheered when Robert reached the top of the skyscraper.

But upon his descent he was arrested by NSW Police and charged with risking the safety of another by climbing a building. He was released on bail and will appear in a Sydney local court on Wednesday.

At 218m (715 feet), the RBS building is not the tallest Robert, 46, has climbed. He is known for scaling the world’s highest skyscrapers, and at last count had scaled more than 70 buildings including Chicago's Sears Tower, Canary Wharf in London and the Petronas towers in Malaysia.

Robert is also no stranger to climbing Sydney’s famous landmarks. In 2003 he was arrested after scaling the Sydney Harbour Bridge — much to the surprise of tourists he climbed passed who had paid to ascend the famous landmark — and in 1997 he was fined $1,000 (£600) after climbing about half way up the 305m (1,000ft) Centrepoint Tower before police intervened.

Last month he was arrested in London after scaling the outside of the Lloyd's Building to protest about climate change during the G20 summit, while in 2007 he was jailed for five days for climbing China’s tallest building, Shanghai's 430m (1,400ft) Jin Mao Tower.

Watching his ascent in Sydney today, an office worker named Peta told reporters she thought the Frenchman’s feat was fantastic.

“I think it's is really important for people to push the limit, I think it’s an important part of life going out and doing crazy things,” she said.

“It's absolutely ridiculous, it's great. I love it.”

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