Russian scales Brooklyn Bridge to take selfie

A Russian national who created a security scare by climbing an 84m tower on New York's Brooklyn Bridge was just trying to take a selfie.

Muscovite Yaroslav Kolchin, 24, has been forced to surrender his passport and is facing a year in prison after he scaled the bridge via the long cables.

Once Kolchin climbed to the top of the iconic bridge, he started snapping photos of himself on his phone.

He was arrested once he walked down the beam back to safety.

"The defendant stated in sum and substance ‘I did it for fun,'" prosecutor Laurie Cartwright told Brooklyn Criminal Court yesterday.

The tourist, who works at an ad agency in Moscow, was denied bail and will stay behind bars.

New York mayor Bill de Blasio said the city was making changes to bridge security after a series of trespassers.

Source: The Blaze
Author: Nick Pearson, Approving editor: Matthew Henry