Naked man lowered from downtown radio tower

A naked man atop a downtown radio tower was wrapped in a blanket and lowered by a makeshift pulley system put together Wednesday night by rescuers at the scene.

The man sat in a basket as he was lowered along the outer rails of a 220-foot metal tower in the 700 block of East Temple Street, law enforcement authorities told The Times.

The rope and pulley system was assembled  by urban search-and-rescue specialists from the Los Angeles Fire Department. Earlier, the man was taken into custody atop the tower by Los Angeles Police Department officers.

He was believed to be in his 30s or 40s and possibly an Arizona resident. It was unclear why he climbed the structure, which is part of a city personnel building just west of the downtown skyline.

He removed items of clothing after he began scaling the tower about 4 p.m.

"He started taking his clothes off as he climbed,"  Officer Karen Rayner told The Times.

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--Andrew Blankstein (twitter.com/anblanx) and Robert J. Lopez (twitter.com/LAJourno)

Photo: Tower where the naked man had climbed. Credit: Reed Saxon / Associated Press