Cradle-Drama At Top Of The Shard

Andy Thornley
By Andy Thornley Last edited 140 months ago
Cradle-Drama At Top Of The Shard

A contractor working at the top of the Shard had a lucky escape when high winds violently spun the cradle he was working in.

The man, believed to be performing safety tests, was in a cradle suspended from the top of the 1,083 ft tall building when it started spinning yesterday in high winds. Footage of the cradle spinning ferociously was captured by a commuter at London Bridge station, however he had no idea that someone was in it – getting very dizzy by the looks of it. London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service did turn up – but thankfully weren’t needed.

A spokesman for the company the man was working for said: "Unfortunately while we were testing software at the top of the Shard a gust of wind caught the cradle. We simply lifted it up to stop it from spinning.

"The engineer in the cradle was fine after a nice cup of coffee."

Despite the high winds, contractors were back working on the Shard just hours later, as these images below show.

External completion of the building – which is currently Western Europe’s tallest – will be celebrated on Thursday evening with a laser show featuring 12 lasers and 30 searchlights. Predictably, the weather for the event is set to be wet

Last Updated 03 July 2012