London Tower Bridge incident: Bridge closed by police for five hours as man climbs up railing

Tower Bridge was closed by police for more than five hours after a man climbed up one of the blue railings.

Officers were called to the bridge - which connects Southwark and the City of London - just before 8pm on Tuesday night.

Footage from the scene shows a man in a cap, sunglasses, a black and red t-shirt and jeans lying in one of the blue bars which curves up to the towers.

Police and the London Fire Brigade closed the bridge to pedestrians and vehicles over “concern for safety”.

Tower Bridge is a major transport artery and is the closest Thames crossing to central London which isn’t in the congestion zone.

The bridge was eventually reopened at 1.30am this morning. There were no arrests.

Ch Insp Tom Fisher, from City of London Police, said: “Officers from the City of London Police were called to Tower Bridge at 7.57pm on August 9 to a concern for safety.

“The bridge was closed to pedestrians and traffic while officers attended the scene and reopened at 1.30am on August 10.”