Couple lying in bed on 40th floor of The Shard 'waved' at climber who scaled building at 6am

Watch: Man spotted climbing The Shard before being arrested

A couple staying on the 40th floor of The Shard spotted a man waving and climbing past their window as they lay in bed at 6am.

The man was spotted scaling the 1,016-foot building in central London barefoot before being arrested on suspicion of trespass.

Video footage has shown the man climbing the iconic landmark, as well as crowds gathering at the foot of the building, where emergency services were all called to the scene.

The Metropolitan Police has confirmed that a 21-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of trespass and two other men arrested on suspicion of causing public nuisance.

Paul Curphey, 52, who was visiting London for a birthday trip with partner Treasaidh, described how they were lying in bed on floor 40 of the building when someone started "waving at the window".

He said it was "amazingly uplifing" to see the young man, and joked that his partner had thought he had 'pulled out all the stop' for the special occasion.

"The climber was yelling in celebratory fashion," the retail businessman from the Isle of Man said.

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"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."

He said the climber had a "happy demeanour", adding: "It was scary to see, but his happy demeanour was amazingly uplifting."

The climber, believed to be Adam Lockwood, posted a terrifying picture of himself balancing at the top of the building, which is the third tallest skyscraper in Europe, while video taken from the ground shows a figure scaling the outside of the building.

Dan, a railway worker who captured some ground-level footage of climb, described seeing the climber scale the building in around an hour and 20 minutes.

He said: "I go to work at 5.50am and at that time it was already happening – I think he started climbing at 5.40am.

"I took the video at 6.45 and he reached the top at 7am. That stuff gives me the heebie-jeebies and it's not a bit of me, no."

He added: "All of us were watching thinking 'what if he falls' – we were working and if he fell we would have to deal with the fall out so we were hoping he would make it to the top.

"When you get to the top there's a platform you can get onto and the police were there waiting for him.

"Half the station had to be closed as he could have fallen in a number of different places.

"He got to the top and we got a call at 7.20am saying he'd been arrested and we could open up the station."

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "Officers were called at 5.38am on Sunday, September 4 following reports of a climber on the Shard.

"Officers, London Ambulance Service and London Fire brigade all attended. A number of cordons were in place while emergency services responded to the incident.

"A 21-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of trespass. Two other men were both arrested on suspicion of causing public nuisance."