A man has been filmed climbing down a 37-storey skyscraper with his bare hands, prompting many to dub him a "real-life Spider-Man".
The incident occurred two days ago, on Friday May 27, in the Chinese city of Guiyang, which is the capital of the Guizhou province, according to a translation from local media outlet Sohu News.
Multiple bystanders, with vantage points from the street, adjacent buildings and even the very skyscraper the man was climbing from, captured the incredible feat.
The man switches from one window to the next.
Video footage is now widely circulating on social media websites including Weibo and Reddit.
Wearing just a white T-shirt, dark jeans and white socks, and also glasses, the Chinese man managed to shuffle down nearly the whole length of the skyscraper by leveraging his body on protruding window ledges and pushing his back up against the exterior of the building.
One report said he scaled down more than 100 metres and that it was a scene that caused onlookers to "sweat".
For the entire time he refused help from firefighters, who followed him down each storey.
Only once the so-called "superhero" reached the third floor was he pulled inside the building to safety.
Concerned citizens had noticed the man hanging around the rooftop and behaving oddly.
He had wedged himself between the window sill and the terrace, flicking through his phone for a while, then leaning over again to look all the way down.
Firefighters were called to the scene but as soon as the man clocked them, videos show he grabbed on to the window sill, stepped down, and began his descent.
Authorities haul him in through the third story window.
Rescue teams kept pace with him during the hair-raising climb and finally pulled him inside when he reached the third floor, thanks to an open window.
The man was taken to the local police station after the bizarre incident to be processed.
It's not immediately clear what prompted him to risk his life to climb down the skyscraper.
One media organisation reported that the man may have been suffering from a mental health episode.
While rescue teams were shadowing him during his descent, they tried to coax him to come back into the building by speaking to him.
He reportedly told them his feet had been bound by someone and at times said words that did not make sense.
However, speculation on social media has suggested that the man was trying to escape lockdown.
Provinces across China have been plunged into lockdown considered the harshest in the world as authorities try to stamp out the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Food riots have started in some areas as stringent rules forbid people from leaving their homes, even to stock up on groceries.
He is dragged inside.
The pets of Covid-positive Chinese citizens are sometimes killed by authorities over fears that the animals have caught the disease off their owners.
During China's first lockdown in 2020, citizens had their doors welded shut to make sure they complied with public health orders.
However, Guizhou no longer appears to be in lockdown, casting doubt on this theory.
It's not the first time a man has made the news in China for climbing down a skyscraper.
In 2019, a man wearing just a white shirt and underwear used a similar technique to climb down the length of a tall building.
Given his state of undress, rumours spread that he had been caught out when the family of his apparently married girlfriend returned to the apartment unexpectedly.
Sadly, the man became fatigued and was unable to make his way down to the bottom, resulting in him falling.
A police statement about the incident did not confirm whether he had survived the fall.
