Third Climber For NY Times Building

A third climber has attempted to scale the New York Times building in the wake of Alain Robert - the French 'Spiderman' and a second climber - but this time he only reached the 11th storey before being arrested.

David Malone was reportedly inspired by the two previous summiteers and studied news reports of their climbs for tips on technique. His aim, apparently, was to publicise the threat posed by al-Quaida and he hung a banner on the building with that aim.

Climbing the building seems to be becoming something of a local pasttime. The the technical grade may have to be increased after workmen removed the crucial horizontal white ceramic rods from the bottoom of the building making it significantly harder to climb.

Earlier extra obstacles had been installed, though Malone seems to have managed to bypass these. During the ascent, police installed a giant inflatable cushion below the building in a giant bouldering mat stylee, though we're not sure that's acceptable style...

More details from the Associated Press.