Man Arrested After Scaling Melbourne Bridge Tower and Spray-Painting Graffiti

Police in Australia have arrested a man after an hours-long standoff for scaling a 140m-high concrete tower of a Melbourne bridge and spray-painting it with a cartoon bird graffiti.

Police on Tuesday said they arrested Jack Gibson-Burrell, 22, after he voluntarily climbed down from the tower, which he had scaled during the early hours of the morning.

An Instagram account posting footage from the Bolte Bridge, not far from the city's central business district, showed a man dangling his legs ⁠from the top of ​the ⁠tower.

In subsequent posts, the account, purportedly of Mr Gibson-Burrell, demanded lower taxes in Australia and requested a peanut butter sandwich be ⁠delivered by drone before he would come down.

The incident caused ​a ⁠stand-off with the police, which ‌in turn closed a lane on the bridge, disrupting commuter traffic.

The authorities were alerted by a security alarm at 2.30am local time about a breach of security in the restricted area in Melbourne's Docklands. The suspect had spray painted the “Pam the Bird” symbol at the top of the tower, along with offensive words, officials said.

Pam the Bird is a symbol that has ‌appeared on dozens of buildings in Melbourne in recent ​years, including on the heritage-listed Flinders Street railway ‌station.

The suspect forced entry into the eastern pylon of the bridge and climbed up through an existing system of ladders, according to officials. "As the morning played out, the man allegedly refused to follow police direction ⁠and come down," said acting inspector Darren Wallis.

He was met by the police after he climbed down from the tower at 11am and subsequently taken into custody.

The man shared several videos on social media showing the view from the top of the tower. In one recent post, he wrote, "I'll be down at 12 pm peacefully," and said he was waiting for the tide to go out.

Mr Wallis said Mr Gibson-Burrell faced serious charges as significant resources were deployed to the location, including uniform members, highway patrol officers, a critical incident response team as well as Search & Rescue and Water Police.

"It’s unacceptable, that’s a taxpayer site and its going to cost taxpayer money to repair," he added.

"It’s a really dangerous environment for anyone to operate in, so we’d really be encouraging people not to even think about that."

The police statement made ⁠no mention of what eventually persuaded the man to ⁠come down. It did not appear to be a peanut butter sandwich, ‌with the ​Instagram account posting: "The audacity to fly ‌a drone up with ​here no sandwich."