Greenpeace protests from new heights - shutting down Eiffel Tower

A French Greenpeace activist, campaigning against the Russian detention of 30 members of the environmental lobby group, took his protest to new heights Saturday morning.  

A Greenpeace activist hangs from a tent at the Eiffel Tower AFP/Thomas Samson

Cyril Cormier suspended a tent from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower in Paris for two hours, and unfurled banners with slogans reading "Free the Arctic 30" and "Militants in prison, climate in danger".

He was later removed by firefighters. 

The protest comes in response to the Russian arrest of 30 crew members of the Dutch-flagged icebreaker Arctic Sunrise in September, including two journalists, on piracy charges.

They were detained after two of the Greenpeace activists scaled a state-owned oil platform in the northern Murmansk region to campaign against Russian energy exploration in the Arctic.

Russian prosecutors have since reduced the charges to hooliganism.

Back on the ground, Cormier  told RFI "we hope Hollande and Ayrault will respond because the charges the activists are facing are completely disproportionate compared to what they have done. President Hollande claimed he would be the French president fighting against Climate change".

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is scheduled to make an official visit to Russia next week.

Authorities in the French capital have closed the Parisian landmark, which attracts tens of thousands of tourists a day.