George King-Thompson nearly scales Seoul skyscraper before being nabbed
A stunt climber scaled more than halfway up the world’s fifth-tallest skyscraper with his bare hands and no safety ropes Monday before being forced to come down again.
British free climber George King-Thompson reached the 72nd floor of the Lotte World Tower in Seoul, South Korea, before he was made to get onto a window-washing lift and moved inside the 123-story high-rise.
King-Thompson, who is in his early 20s, was dressed in just shorts and carrying a parachute at the time. He told cops he wanted to leap from the top of the tower using his parachute, a sport known as BASE jumping, according to South Korean media reports.
The acronym encompasses the four fixed structures from which one can jump: buildings, antennae, spans and earth.
George King-Thompson climbs the Lotte Tower in Seoul without ropes Monday. Riot E-Liquid / SWNS
His 1,020-foot rescue effort required more than 90 emergency and police personnel.
King-Thompson, who publicizes his stunts on social media, was arrested in 2019 after scaling the tallest skyscraper in his native country — the Shard in London.
Two years later, he scaled the 36-floor Stratosphere Tower in the city in less than a half-hour, saying the stunt was to bring attention to climate change.
King-Thompson, seen here climbing a Berlin high-rise barefoot in 2022, was apprehended a little more than halfway up a South Korean skyscraper Monday. AFP via Getty Images
The daredevil incident harkened back to 2018, when French climber Alain Robert reached the 75th floor of the Lotte World Tower before being detained. Building officials did not press charges, and Robert was released.
Manhattan has also been the scene of dangerous climbing antics. Robert was one of two men who scaled the New York Times building in Times Square in 2008 — a stunt that was repeated by a pro-life activist last year.
In 2013, three BASE jumpers scaled the World Trade Center before taking a death-defying plunge that went viral on social media.
In 2016, as Donald Trump was running for president, a man scaled much of Trump Tower in a leisurely, four-hour episode that was broadcast live on the national news. He later said he had hoped to get the attention of the Republican candidate.
In 1974, aerialist Philippe Petit captivated the city by tightrope-walking between the newly erected Twin Towers multiple times. The stunt changed negative public perception of the monolithic structures and was dubbed the “artistic crime of the century.”
With Post wires
Source: New York Post
