A group of female activists from Greenpeace were on Thursday attempting to climb the Shard, the tapered 310m glass tower next to London Bridge station, as a protest against oil and gas drilling in the Arctic. The protesters evaded security guards just before dawn to begin the unauthorised bid to climb the 72-storey glass-fronted building. The Twitter feed for Greenpeace UK carried a photograph of the activists, in their climbing gear before they began the protest, naming them as Wiola Smul (23) from Poland, Ali Garrigan (27) from the UK, Sabine Huyghe (33) from Belgium, Sandra Lamborn (29) from Sweden, Victoria Henry (32) from Canada and Liesbeth Deddens (31) from the Netherlands. Greenpeace said they had targeted the Shard to highlight the work of Shell and other oil companies and intended to hang an artwork from the top if they managed to reach it. \"They chose to climb the Shard because it towers over Shell\'s three London offices,\" it said in a statement. \"Shell is leading the oil companies\' drive into the Arctic, investing billions in its Alaskan and Russian drilling programmes.\" A spokesman for London\'s Metropolitan Police said, \"We were called at twenty past four this morning. We have six protesters attempting to scale the outside of the Shard. \"We have officers down there, monitoring the situation. The event is still ongoing.\" A Shard spokesman said they were working to ensure the safety of the climbers as well as that of workers and visitors to the centre.