LONDON: Six female Greenpeace activists attempted yesterday to scale the Shard skyscraper in London, western Europe’s tallest building, in a protest over Arctic oil drilling, the environmental group said.
The activists evaded security guards just before dawn to begin the unauthorized bid to climb the 72-story glass-fronted building, which towers 301 meters (1,017 feet) over the British capital.
Greenpeace said the six “artists and activists” had targeted the Shard to highlight the work of Shell and other oil companies and intended to hang an artwork from the top if they managed to reach it.
“They chose to climb the Shard because it towers over Shell’s three London offices,” it said in a statement.
“Shell is leading the oil companies’ drive into the Arctic, investing billions in its Alaskan and Russian drilling programs.”
Greenpeace said they were “free climbing” without assistance but would attach safety ropes as they progressed, while a live video feed of the climb was being broadcast online.
The group named the climbers as “Sabine, Sandra, Victo, Ali, Wiola and Liesbeth” and posted a photo of them before the climb. It quoted climber Victoria Henry, a Canadian woman living in London as saying before the climb: “It’s going to be really hard work, it’s going to be nerve-shredding for all of us and we may not succeed, but we’re going to do everything we can to pull it off.”
A spokesman for London’s Metropolitan Police said, “We were called at twenty past four this morning. We have six activists attempting to scale the outside of the Shard.
