Trio Dodge Security To Reach Top Of Shard

Dramatic aerial images apparently taken at the top of the 1,016ft (310 metres) Shard in central London have been posted online by a student who claims to have given security guards the slip along with two friends.

One image shows a man sitting in the cab of a crane at the top of the giant glass skyscraper , which is due to be completed in June.

Other photos show the trespassers climbing ladders running up the side of the towering structure.

The most breathtaking shot shows a man, called Bradley Garrett, perched right at the top of the £435m building. He is seen hanging onto a crane with his hands, with the long drop to the city below.

Mr Garrett, who uploaded the pictures on his blog called Place Hacking , claims just one security officer was guarding the building when he broke in.

Writing on his blog, the American claimed he and two friends climbed onto the site at 2am from a walkway near London Bridge Railway station before scaling the building's staircases to the 76th floor.

He said: "As of December 2011, the Shard claimed the title of 'tallest building in the European Union', stretching 310 meters into the clouds from London Bridge.

"It has also been said that is it the most secure site in the city outside of the 2012 Olympic Park. I have never measured the building so I can't testify to the validity of the first claim but I'm happy to respond to the second, as usual."

He suggested that dodging security was not a difficult task.

"We waited for the guard to finish his current round and go into his hut," he wrote.

"It took a few minutes of lingering before the walkway was clear of people - we grabbed onto the scaffolding pipes and swung off the bridge.

"Hanging on the freezing pipes, we pulled ourselves on top of the walkway and laid down out of view, waiting for a reaction in case anyone had seen or heard us. It didn't seem so.

"Staying low, we then descended the other side of the scaffolding, right behind the security hut where we could see the guard watching TV, not the cameras.

"Quickly, we scampered across the yard and found the central stair case, again pausing to see if there was any reaction from the yard, phones ringing or doors opening. It was silent."

Describing the moment they reached the top of the skyscraper, Mr Garrett said: "We were so high, I couldn't see anything moving at street level. No buses, no cars, just rows of lights and train lines that looked like converging river systems, a giant urban circuit board."

A spokesman for Sellar Property Group, the developer, and Mace, the main contractor, said it believed the incident occured in December 2010.

"The breach was discovered very soon afterwards and security immediately tightened," he said.

He added: "Today security on the site is tight with 14 night-time security guards on duty continuously who cover all areas, as well as 25 CCTV cameras in operation together with a ground floor level laser alarm system."

The Shard is the tallest building in the European Union and the 45th tallest in the world.

The highest structure in London was previously One Canada Square at Canary Wharf, which stands at 773ft (235 metres) and was completed in 1991.