Man with no arms and legs plans to swim around the world

A limbless French swimmer has vowed to swim around the world by tackling crossings between the five continents.

Phillipe Croizon, with his swimming partner Arnaud Chassery, plans to swim across narrow waterways that connect the five continents in order to send a message to the world about global unity.

Mr Croizon, who lost his limbs in an electrical accident, said: “"We are going to symbolically link the five continents, two little people like us, two little men, we're going to be able to build a bridge between the continents... That means that we're going to bring them together.

“So even if we have different political opinions, or skin colours, of even with our disabilitites, we all live on the same planet. And that's the clear message we want to send.”

Mr Croizon lost his arms and legs at the age of 26 when he was injured carrying out maintenance on a electricity pylon which resulted in the amputation of all four limbs. This did not stop him swimming the English Channel though, this feat serving as inspiration for his latest endeavour.

He will begin the first leg of his journey, swimming from Papa New Guinea to Indonesia to link Asia and Australasia, on May 6 and hopes to complete his challenge by August.

Photo: Getty.