New York – A man scaled the side of Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon with what looked like suction cups and a climbing harness, drawing hundreds of onlookers and prompting a significant police response.
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The 58-story building is headquarters for the election campaign of Donald Trump, the U.S. Republican presidential nominee.
The man, wearing shorts, a black shirt and a backpack, was climbing the tower’s glass exterior, above an outdoor terrace around five stories off the ground, according to a Reuters reporters on the scene.
New York police shut down several streets surrounding the building in one of the city’s busiest neighborhoods, while officers climbed to a section of the building above the man. Police also placed an inflatable landing pad on East 56th Street between Madison and Fifth avenues.
The New York Police Department said on Twitter that the department’s special operations division and emergency crews had responded at Trump Tower’s address to the man climbing the building.
Reports of the climber first surfaced on Twitter and social media around 4 p.m. (2000 GMT). Over the following hour, police appeared to try various ways of coaxing the man inside, first by throwing a rope in his direction and then by opening a large grate directly above his position.
Shortly after 5 p.m., someone shattered a window on the 16th floor, a few stories above the man, and draped what looked like blankets over the ledge.
An individual appeared to be talking with the man through the empty window frame, but the man began moving away again, climbing even higher.
Why hasn’t anyone climbed Clinton’s towers??? Oh that’s right they haven’t built anything.