WATCH: Man escapes on telephone wires to avoid paying hotel bill, gets stuck in mid-air

A man who didn't want to pay his hotel bill decided to flee Mission: Impossible-style, and discovered he was no Ethan Hunt.

He connected telephone wires to the next building and attempted to walk a tightrope (pun intended) about 19 storeys from the ground in Panzhou, China last Friday (Sept 29).

Onlookers were treated to a Cirque du Soleil show when the man lost his balance.

Videos of the incident show the man flipping and turning in mid-air as he struggled to hang on to the wires.

More precarious was the fact that he was very near two high-voltage wires, China Daily reported.

"Brother, do you want to go to heaven?" the news agency commented on Weibo.

The man was eventually rescued by firefighters and then arrested, reports say.

He probably has more than just the hotel bill to pay, now.

[embed]https://studio.brightcove.com/products/videocloud/media/videos/5598485263001[/embed]

huizhen@sph.com.sg