British man who scaled 73 floors on outside of South Korea’s Lotte World Tower planned to parachute off the top
- Local media identified the climber as 24-year-old George King-Thompson, who was arrested and jailed in 2019 for trying to scale the Shard in London
- He had reportedly planned to parachute off the 123-storey building, but was forced to get into a maintenance cradle and was taken in for questioning
The 24-year-old man, wearing shorts, made his way up the landmark skyscraper for more than an hour as police and fire crews gathered below.
He reached between the 72nd and 73rd floor – about 310 metres (1,020 feet) off the ground – before authorities forced him to get into a maintenance cradle and enter the building, a fire department official said, adding that police took him into custody for questioning.
In 2021, he climbed the 36-storey Stratosphere Tower, a residential block in East London’s Stratford neighbourhood and reached the top in less than half an hour. He said he picked the building because he was shocked by the flash floods that recently hit the area and wanted to raise awareness to the seriousness of climate change.
Police confirmed they took custody of the man but didn’t provide further details.
Lotte officials said the man didn’t suffer any major injuries. The fire agency statement said he suffered a cut on his skin on the right knee.