A couple staying on the 40th floor of the Shard have spoken about spotting a barefoot climber ascending the London skyscraper on Sunday morning.
Paul Curphey spotted Adam Lockwood scaling the 72-floor building, which hosts flats, a hotel and offices, at 6am when they saw him waving and climbing past Curphey and his partner Treasaidh’s window.
Lockwood has posted a photograph on his Facebook account from the top of the famous “shard of glass” tower near London Bridge, and has previously received publicity for climbing a crane in Dubai and the San Siro football stadium in Milan.
Curphey said the couple, who were visiting London for a birthday trip, were lying in bed when they saw someone waving at the window.
“The climber was yelling in celebratory fashion,” the 52-year-old businessman from the Isle of Man told the PA news agency.
“He appeared, waving at the window, 40 floors up, already in the deep end so to speak. We couldn’t help but urge him on to complete his mission.
“He was smiling, waving, and having the time of his life.
“(My) partner thought I had pulled all the stops out and managed to get a guy to bring a box of Milk Tray for her birthday.”
Curphey added the climber had a “happy demeanour”.
“It was scary to see, but his happy demeanour was amazingly uplifting.”
The Metropolitan police were called to the 1,017ft (310m) skyscraper at 5.38am. The London fire brigade and London ambulance service also attended.
Three men were arrested. One, a 21-year-old, thought to be Lockwood, was arrested on suspicion of trespass and two others were held on suspicion of causing public nuisance.
In October 2019 George King-Thomson was jailed for six months after he broke an injunction and climbed the Shard. No criminal charges were brought by the Met, but instead a case was brought by Real Estate Management Ltd which manages the building. Greenpeace activists previously tried to scale it.
