Daredevil Alex Honnold starts nerve-shredding climb of 101-story tower in Taiwan without ropes live on Netflix

American rock climber Alex Honnold began his terrifying attempt to climb a 101-storey tower without ropes, live on Netflix.

Honnold, 40, attempts to climb Taiwan’s 560-meter Taipei 101 skyscraper (formerly the world’s tallest building) in his signature free solo style on Sunday morning.

As thousands of local people lined the streets around Taipei 101, his wife Sanni stood on the ground watching her husband climb.

Cheers rose from the assembled crowd as he began to climb the tower, using the horizontal metal beams to pull himself up with his bare hands.

The audience cheered again as he stopped at one point and turned towards them, wearing a striking red short-sleeved shirt as he climbed.

Honnold’s climb had to be postponed for 24 hours due to wet weather conditions in the city on Saturday morning. ‘Skyscraper Live’ broadcast is delayed by 10 seconds.

Honnold (shown in red at the bottom of the image) climbs Taiwan’s 1,667ft skyscraper

People inside Taipei 101 took photos of Honnold climbing past them in extraordinary scenes

Honnold climbs without ropes, streamed live on Netflix despite 10-second delay in broadcast

The highly anticipated event caused worldwide excitement, but the 40-year-old, who is married with two daughters, led some fans to question the motive.

Built in 2004, Taipei 101 has mostly glass curtain walls and balconies at the top.

Mr. Honnold is known for his iconic ropeless climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, documented in ‘Free Solo’.

He said: ‘When you look at climbing targets, you look for something unique.

‘A place like El Capitan, which is much bigger and much prouder than everything around it.’

Mr Honnold will not be the first climber to scale the skyscraper, but he will be the first to do so without a rope.

French rock climber Alain Robert climbed the building on Christmas Day in 2004 as part of the grand opening of what was then the world’s tallest building.

While nursing an injured elbow and battered by wind and rain, it took him almost four hours to finish; It took almost twice as long as he expected.

Honnold is married to his wife, Sanni, and they share two young daughters: June and Alice.

Mr Honnold, who has been training for months, said he thought the climb would not be difficult.

He said he was rehearsing the moves in the building. Speaking on the climbing podcast he added: ‘I don’t think it would be that extreme.

‘We’ll see. ‘For me I think it’s the perfect sweet spot where it’s challenging enough to be interesting and, frankly, it’s an interesting climb.’

The building has 101 floors, with the hardest part being the 64 floors that make up the middle section; ‘bamboo boxes’ which give the structure its distinctive appearance.

Divided into eight sections, each section will feature eight stories of steep, overhanging climbing followed by a balcony where Mr. Honnold can rest.