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A screengrab of rooftopper James Kingston performing stunts in Hong Kong, captured from a YouTube video. Photo: Handout

British rooftopper’s terrifying debut stunt in Hong Kong leaves luxury 26-floor hotel investigating

James Kingston said to have passed restricted area to reach roof of Central high-rise where video shows him balancing precariously on top of building

A luxury hotel is investigating after a British rooftopper filmed himself balancing precariously on the top of its 26-floor building while performing his debut stunt in Hong Kong.

James Kingston passed through a restricted area to reach the roof of the Butterfly on Hollywood in Central, where he then climbed even higher up on various ladders and metalwork.

He shared terrifying video footage of the stunt on June 8 to his YouTube channel, which has accumulated more than half a million subscribers since he established it in November 2008.

In the video, as Kingston stands close to the edge of the roof and looks down at the streets below, he is heard saying: “Hong Kong – we made it to Hong Kong. Look at that, dude! This is mental – this is absolutely mental.”

The footage, the latest high-profile rooftopping stunt in the city, has since been watched more than 110,000 times and received thousands of complimentary comments.

A spokesman for Butterfly Hotels and Serviced Apartments, where a double room costs at least HK$600 per night, confirmed Kingston had stayed at the hotel for one week from June 8.

Kingston performing a stunt in Britain. Photo: Handout

Commenting on the stunt, he agreed Kingston had put his own life at risk and endangered pedestrians and motorists below, and said the hotel was subsequently reviewing its security procedures after Kingston was easily able to access the rooftop.

“This is the first time this has happened in our hotel,” he said. “We want to prevent this happening again. We are not sure yet what more can be done in this case, but we may need to review CCTV and do more patrols in the hotel. We plan to contact the police in order to help them avoid it happening again.”

A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong police said they had yet to receive any report on the incident.

Speaking to the camera before the rooftop stunt, Kingston revealed he had recently arrived at the hotel from Hong Kong International Airport, and was staying in a suite on the 18th floor.

“So I have just arrived in Hong Kong, it is boiling hot and I have just got off an 11- or 12-hour flight – it was super long, but we made it,” he said. “So I slept almost all of the flight, and it’s about 6pm here, so I’m pretty awake, so what I’m going to do is, I’m going to go out and find something to climb straight away. It’s probably going to be another night climb but it’s going to be good, so let’s go and find something. Let’s climb something. First thing you have to try when you get to a new hotel that is pretty tall, is see if you can get to the rooftop. So let’s do that.”

During his stay in Hong Kong, Kingston also filmed himself performing parkour at two other unknown locations with his rooftopping friend Magdalena Sieczkarek.

In one stunt, which he filmed and uploaded to YouTube on June 13, the pair climbed up a crane during darkness before attempting to fly a drone around the city’s high-rise rooftops.

And in another stunt at an unidentified 162-metre building in the city, the pair were caught by security and forced to leave after climbing up to a restricted area.

The Post has contacted Kingston for comment.

In 2014, Kingston, aged in his late 20s, was arrested for rooftopping in Dubai, where he climbed the Princess Tower, a 101-storey residential building, but was eventually released without charge.

He began parkour as a teenager, shooting to fame after featuring in a British television documentary entitled Don’t Look Down, where he was filmed hanging off cranes in his hometown of Southampton.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: hotel probes ‘mental’ stunt
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