London authorities have arrested a 21-year-old man after a person was spotted climbing The Shard in the city center.
On Sunday morning, the London Metropolitan Police were called to the 1,017-foot-tall skyscraper with reports that a man was climbing to the top of the massive building.
“Police were called at 05:38hrs on Sunday, 4 September following reports of a climber on the Shard.” a police spokesman told the media.
The London Fire Brigade and the ambulance service rushed to the scene and put up several cordons to secure the perimeter.
Images that went viral on social media showed a man climbing up the side of The Shard as a crowd watched from below.
According to London Metropolitan Police, the 21-year-old was arrested on suspicion of trespassing. Two other men were arrested for causing a public nuisance.
The man behind the risky act is believed to be Adam Lockwood, a man known in Manchester for pulling off similar rock-climbing stunts.
Previously, the notorious free climber scaled the 262-foot San Siro stadium in Milan. He also pretended to be a security guard to climb a 1,200-foot crane in Dubai and did pull-ups on a 1,115-foot-high beam at a power plant in Croatia.
Authorities have gone after Mr. Lockwood after he shared a photo of himself on top of the massive building on his Facebook page.
The Shard is the tallest skyscraper in the UK and the 96th tallest in the world. However, Mr. Lockwood is not the first person to try to climb it.
George King, a self-described “stuntman” and “urban climber,” shared a video on his Instagram account in 2019. The clip showed the 19-year-old climbing the building without ropes, harnesses, and no safety equipment.
Mr. King was sentenced to 24 weeks in prison for violating an injunction imposed by The Shard’s owners.
“I didn’t feel scared… an hour before, obviously there were nerves but as soon as I was walking towards The Shard and I knew that this was what I was going to do, all the fears subside and it’s just pure focus. The purest form of focus you can possibly have,” he said back then.
In 2013, a group of Greenpeace protesters also attempted to scale the 87-story tower.
