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Police arrest British man free-climbing South Korean skyscraper Police arrest British man free-climbing South Korean skyscraper
(about 7 hours later)
Man in shorts made it to 73rd floor of 123-storey Lotte World Tower before being stopped Man in shorts made it to 73rd floor of 123-storey Lotte World Tower in Seoul before being stopped
A British man attempted to scale the world’s fifth tallest building without ropes on Monday, until South Korean authorities forced him to abandon his climb more than halfway up the 123-storey Lotte World Tower in Seoul. A British man has been arrested in South Korea after he attempted to climb the country’s tallest skyscraper without equipment, police said.
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. The man was scaling the 123-storey Lotte World Tower in southern Seoul early on Monday when staff spotted him, forcing him to stop his ascent as he reached the 73rd floor.
He reached the 73rd floor where 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. “Lotte staff had to go on a gondola lift to persuade him to stop when he was still climbing above the building’s 70th floor,” an official from the National Police Agency said. “He finally gave in and we arrested him at the scene for obstruction of official business. He is currently being questioned at a police station in Seoul’s Songpa district.”
Police were not immediately available for comment. The 555-metre (1,820ft) Lotte World Tower is the world’s fifth-tallest building.
The Chosun Ilbo newspaper identified the man as George King-Thompson. British media reported he was arrested and jailed for climbing the Shard building in London in 2019. Alain Robert, widely known as the “French Spiderman”, was jailed in 2018 after climbing the same building without permission. He ascended to the 75th storey.
In 2018 police arrested “French Spiderman” Alain Robert as he was more than halfway up the Lotte World Tower. Local media, including the newspaper Chosun Ilbo, have identified the British man in custody as George King-Thompson. It has been reported that King-Thompson was previously jailed for attempting to scale the Shard skyscraper in London.