Belgian among Greenpeace Shard climbing team

A 33-year-old Belgian woman was among the six Greenpeace activists who climbed the London’s 310 metre-tall Shard building yesterday, in protest against Shell's plans to drill for oil in the Arctic. Sabine Huyghe, from Ghent, was part of a team  that also included Victoria Henry, 32 and Ali Garrigan, 27, both from the UK, Sandra Lamborn, 29, from Sweden, Liesbeth Deddens, 31, from the Netherlands, and Wiola Smul, 23, from Poland.  Many British and European media, including the Telegraph, we covering the climb in live blogs, while celebrities including Annie Lennox were expressing their support via Twitter.  The all-female team from across Europe reached the summit at around 7.30pm yesterday before entering the building where they were later arrested by police. The climbers had gained access to the outside of the 72-storey building at 4.20am by posing as workers for the Thameslink route being built across London. Once past security, their truck trundled straight past London Bridge station and up to the Shard, whereupon the roof flipped open and the women jumped out, the Independent reports. The climbers had planned to place a model polar bear at the summit but later scrapped the move because it was unsafe to do so.

Shell, for its part, said in a statement: "We respect the right of individuals and organisations to engage in a free and frank exchange of views about our operations (…) we only ask that they do so with their safety in mind." The company added that resources in the Arctic could be "developed responsibly" to "offset supply constraints".