Stuntman scales New York Times Building

Alain Robert, a French stuntman known for climbing tall buildings, scaled the north face of the New York Times building on Thursday, climbing 52 stories to the roof and clutching a bright green banner, before police arrested him around 12:22 p.m.

Police and security officials cordoned off the sidewalk on West 41st Street, as a large crowd assembled. The words on the banner were illegible from the sidewalk, but from office windows inside the tower the slogan on the banner could be clearly read: “Global warming kills more people than 9/11 every week.”

The man later confirmed, moments after being arrested on the roof of the tower, that he was Alain Robert, a 46-year-old stunt man famous for scaling structures like the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, the Sydney Opera House in Australia and the Eiffel Tower and Montparnasse Tower in Paris. He wore a T-shirt with his name and the address of a Web site (thesolutionissimple.org), exercise pants and climbing shoes. He had long blond hair. He used no rope, harness or parachute.