BERLIN (AP) — German police in Cologne on Sunday detained five Frenchmen and a Belgian woman who had tried to climb the city’s famous cathedral.
Police said they were informed by the church’s private security guards who spotted the young climbers with headlamps on their surveillance cameras in the middle of the night.
Police officers in riot gear surrounded the cathedral while a helicopter hovered over the northern dome, until the five climbers were apprehended inside the tower’s stairwell. Authorities reported that the men were between the ages of 18 and 27, the woman was 26. Their identities were kept confidential in accordance with German privacy regulations.
Police seized a camera, a cellphone and a lock pick. During their search of the building, they discovered multiple doors seemed to have been broken down and rucksacks containing climbing equipment.
