Don’t look down! Briton’s crazy selfie at top of Eiffel Tower

WHEN you get your highs by scaling tall structures without any equipment, the Eiffel Tower is hard to top.

Just ask James Kingston, seen here enjoying the spectacular view – and somehow ignoring the terrifying drop – in a breath-taking photo he took of himself on part of its iron lattice work above Paris.

The British daredevil could not resist trying to climb the 984ft tower (1,063ft if you include the broadcast antennas at the top) on a trip to the French capital, even though he knew he’d be in trouble with the police if he was caught.

In a new book, Never Look Down, he admits the tower at first ‘felt so out of reach, because it’s just... well, a special building – you don’t really think of climbing things like that’.

But its lure proved impossible for him and a fellow climber to resist after they went up it ‘normally, via the lifts and with a bunch of other tourists’ and realised ‘it’s just a giant ladder’. They returned at night for an illegal ascent, Mr Kingston managing to evade security on the way up before climbing down at 9am, when he was immediately arrested.

Recalling that day in October 2014, he said there were about ten police with guns ‘but they were really nice. Professionally their line was stern: “You shouldn’t do this”. But then, personally, they couldn’t help but be interested: “How was it? How did you do that?” ’

The police made Mr Kingston delete all photos from his phone, but he’d already hid- den the memory cards from cameras he also had with him – and kept all the good footage. No criminal damage having been committed, he and his friend were released after signing a document saying they would not climb the tower again for period of three years.

Mr Kingston, 26, from Southampton, used to be scared of heights but overcame his fear by taking up a climbing as a teenager. His videos of climbs up cranes, bridges and buildings have attracted more than 11million views on YouTube.