Free climber poses as worker to scale crane 1,200ft above Dubai

A British free climber posed as a construction worker to sneak to the top of a skyscraper and dangle from a gut-churning height above Dubai with just one hand.

Adam Lockwood, a 21-year-old from Manchester, gained entry to the residential skyscraper, Il Primo, and attempted to dodge the real construction workers during his ascent to the top – 390 metres (1,280ft) above ground.

In video footage that documents his death-defying stunt in the United Arab Emirates, he films himself walking into a part of the building that looks to be under construction, noting there is hardly anyone around.

But later he comes across a worker who asks him what he’s doing. He uses Google translate to say in Arabic that he “was working on the site and forgot something” before he is told to leave.

Mr Lockwood then uses a different staircase to start his climb to the 77th floor, while stopping every so often to drench his head with water from taps to cool himself down in the heat.

He says in the video that he changed staircases eight times in two hours as he kept coming across workers.

At the top, the daredevil uses no safety equipment as he spins himself around the poles of the crane – as if on a playground climbing frame – with a view of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, nearby.

He said his experience was “surreal” but also “almost peaceful” as his “brain is blank” while he carries out his stunts.

“When I first looked at the footage, I was thinking to myself: ‘This is it, this is the most incredible thing I’ve done’,” he said.

“It’s something I know I can do and that 99 per cent of the world can’t and never will do, so I feel obliged to use my ability and enjoy doing it in the process.”

He said he later discovered that the bars of the crane has been covered in “grease”, something he mistook before starting his stunt for desert dust.

The seven-minute-long clip ends with Mr Lockwood wearing a blue construction worker’s helmet as he walks down the stairs while hundreds of labourers start their 6am shift.

In April, Mr Lockwood dangled from the 80-metre San Siro stadium in Milan. He later climbed the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris.