A British daredevil has filmed himself climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower without the use of safety ropes.
James Kingston, who has previously climbed Wembley Stadium and the second tallest building in Dubai, the Princess Tower, has posted footage on YouTube of his thrill-seeking endeavour in which he evaded security guards for much of the night before being arrested by police the following morning.
The 25-year-old from Romsey, Hampshire, said that after six hours in custody he was released without charge and on condition he does not climb the Paris landmark again for three years.
Mr Kingston wrote on YouTube: "The Eiffel Tower has been one of my goals for quite a while."
He described how his original plan had been to buy tickets and climb up the stairways for the first part of the climb but because of the number of visitors, he decided to wait until 1am and climb from the ground floor.
He said: "We started the climb at 1am narrowly avoiding the patrolling security (which seemed more like the French army as they were in full camo & had massive guns) and wormed our way through what seemed like endless CCTV cameras.
"Once we reached about 20 metres up the side of the tower it appeared we'd made it through what would normally be the riskiest part of any climb.
"As far as I could tell, the tower was ours for the night. After slowly making our way up through the framework of the Tower, we finally reached the top platform which was fully lit up.”
He said after a close call with security, he had a “few more hours playing around on the tower” before he was finally caught by security at 9am and handed over to the police.
Mr Kingston added: "I can now officially tick the Eiffel Tower off my list.”