UK man spotted free climbing Western Europe's tallest building 'The Shard', arrested later

On Sunday morning, a man was seen to be climbing the tallest building in the United Kingdom and Western Europe – The Shard. After spotting the incident of an unidentified person free climbing to the top of the enormous skyscraper, police were called in the early hours to central London, UK. Further, the 21-year-old man was detained on suspicion of trespassing after he reached the top. Manchester native Adam Lockwood, who is renowned for a number of other climbing feats, shared a photo of himself on the top of the Shard on his Facebook page. 

According to the Met, two other individuals were also held on suspicion of creating a public nuisance. 

At 05:38 a.m. (local time), Metropolitan Police officers were summoned to the 310-meter (1,017-foot) tower, where numerous cordons were set up, BBC reported. The London Fire Brigade and the ambulance service also showed up. 

The free climber, Lockwood has previously uploaded pictures of himself performing chin-ups from a 1,100-foot power station, hanging without cloths from a crane, and climbing to the top of buildings, Metro reported. The alleged climber has previously succeeded in scaling other enormous buildings, including Marina 101, the second-tallest skyscraper in Dubai .

Spectators remarked about the British man

Furthermore, Dan, a railway employee who recorded some footage of the climb from the bottom up, described how the climber ascended the structure in around an hour and 20 minutes. “I go to work at 5:50 am (local time) and at that time it was already happening – I think he started climbing at 5:40 a.m. I took the video at 6:45 a.m. and he reached the top at 7 a.m.”, citing Dan, the Metro reported.  

He even described that a platform is available when someone reaches the top, and the cops were waiting for him on that platform. Dan further noted while talking about the climber, “Half the station had to be closed as he could have fallen in a number of different places. He got to the top and we got a call at 7:20 a.m. saying he’d been arrested and we could open up the station.” 

Besides this, as per the BBC report, at 6:00 in the morning, Paul Curphey and his partner Treasaidh noticed a man waving and climbing by their window as they were staying in a hotel on the 40th story of the Shard. 

Meanwhile, a group of Greenpeace protestors attempted to scale the 87-story Southwark skyscraper in the past in 2013. 

(Image: Facebook- Adam Lockwood)