French climber charged after scaling CBD high-rise without harness

A French national has been charged after he scaled a high-rise building allegedly without safety equipment during a free-climbing stunt in Melbourne’s CBD on Tuesday morning.

Emergency services were called to an apartment building near RMIT University after reports of a man climbing the Avani Melbourne Central Residences about 7.50am.

Anthony Andolfo drew a large crowd as the 29-year-old ascended – untethered – the building’s facade.

Wearing a backpack and with a GoPro, Andolfo reached the top of the 56-storey building where emergency services were waiting. He was taken in handcuffs to a police van.

When asked why he climbed the tower, he told reporters: “Just because I can.”

Andolfo, who is in Australia on a 12-month tourist working visa, was charged with offences including reckless conduct endangering life.

The climber was escorted by police from the CBD building once he reached the top.Credit: Nine News

Hugo Frohlinger, a 25-year-old French national, was charged with public nuisance after being arrested for filming the climb with a drone from the base of the building.

Both men appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday evening where they were assisted by a French interpreter. The charges against the pair hold a maximum prison sentence of five-years.

The court heard Andolfo was an experienced climber who had performed similar stunts in Paris and elsewhere overseas.

He had a flight booked to Panama on Wednesday and had been able to raise $2000 as a fine if he could avoid jail time, the court heard.

When arguing for a harsher penalty, the police prosecutor said Andolfo not only risked his own life but risked serious injury to others. He was remanded and will be sentenced at a later date.

The magistrate said Frohlinger had posed less of a risk to the public and he would likely face a fine when his sentence was decided by the courts.

At the scene, Lucas Uzzo told media that his friend – Andolfo – had not climbed the building for attention.

“Only for personal accomplishment and adrenaline,” he said.

Police allege Andolfo had exited the ninth floor of the building where he had climbed over the balcony before scaling its exterior.

An Instagram account named “Antholia” posted a video that appeared to be captured by the climber halfway up the building.

Trent, a tradesman working nearby, was among the first to report the stunt to Melbourne media.

“One hundred per cent, [it’s] not a window-washer,” he told 3AW.

“We’ve watched people in the street looking up, so we’ve come to have a look ourselves, and then we’ve looked up and there’s a guy.”

Trent said the climber “has definitely got the nickname of Melbourne’s Spider-Man”.

He later said the climber stopped four storeys from the top, where police were waiting for him. Trent added that it looked like he had a chalk bag, typically used by free-climbers to improve their handholds.

A man free climbs the building in Melbourne’s CBD on Tuesday morning.Credit: Nine News

“It’s a bloody big building, boys. I’d be lucky to climb a fence,” Trent said.

Victorian climbing expert Aaron Lowndes – who runs Melbourne Climbing School for recreational climbers, and The Climbing Company for school groups – slammed public displays of free-climbing.

“I find it kind of sad in anybody’s climbing career they decided to do this and make a spectacle out of it,” he said.

“Free soloing without ropes, where if you fall the result is painful not just for yourself but everybody around you, is not the way that climbing works.

“When you think about this person’s family, the people they [could] leave behind – that’s painful.”

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