Shards of glass flew through the Times newspaper offices as firefighters smashed a window to rescue two cleaners who were stuck in their cradle outside the building’s eighth floor for six hours.
The pair were stuck at a dizzying height on Thursday afternoon after their cradle broke down outside the News UK building in Wapping.
After spending several hours trying to rescue the pair desperate firefighters smashed the window, having exhausted all other options.
A London Fire Brigade spokesman confirmed: “We were called to the scene where two window cleaners were stuck in their cradle outside the eighth floor at 3.56pm. They have been rescued from an internal window.”
Journalists from the Times – owned by News UK - posted updates on social networking site Twitter as the rescue operation progressed.
Reporter Kaya Burgess (@kayaburgess) wrote: “Shards of glass falling past as fire brigade smash window on Times building to rescue a cleaner who’s been stuck outside 8th floor for 6hrs.”
He later made a jovial reference to the recent revelation that intelligence agents from GCHQ visited the Guardian newspaper’s offices, smashing hard drives containing confidential material.
“Early indications suggest it’s not an elaborate ruse from GCHQ to gain access to News UK building, just a very unfortunate window-cleaner,” he wrote.
Another staff member, Kat Brown (@katbrown82) took a more sympathetic view of the pair’s plight.
“The poor loves,” she wrote. “At least @LondonFire is here to help get them down!”
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