There is speculation that the embassy's intruder may have been an assassin, an "inside job," a "professional hit man" or an attempted break in.
@bonesprit67 @julieoakman727 @wikileaks automatically makes me think professional. Gotta be pretty slick to slip away.
— weseeu (@NRiddlebaugh) August 22, 2016
Or indeed, a "huge fan" of Julian Assange, the man behind the leaking of cashes of classified documents online.
@DebraMMason1 @bonesprit67 @julieoakman727 @wikileaks I'm a huge fan… If I had to climb a wall to meet him I would.
— weseeu (@NRiddlebaugh) August 22, 2016
WikiLeaks released a statement on their Twitter account that a "male intruder" had been spotted but "fled after being caught by security."
A "male intruder" was caught climbing a wall of the embassy in Knightsbridge at 02:47 Monday (August 23) morning by security staff.
19 mins ago at 2:47am an unknown man scaled the side wall+window of the Ecuadorian embassy in London; fled after being caught by security.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 22, 2016
The wall is reportedly being checked for fingerprints.
WikiLeaks have since tweeted that the London's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) took two hours to respond to reports of an intruder at the Embassy, "despite 24h covert op & police station 2 mins walk away."
UK police took 2h to respond to Assange Embassy intruder despite 24h covert op & police station 2 mins walk away. pic.twitter.com/omaGWDwwuW
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 23, 2016
Meanwhile, the Ecuadorian embassy has criticized Scotland Yard's response to the intruder, citing the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) which stipulates that the host country, in this case, Britain, "has the special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of any diplomatic mission against any form of intrusion or harm."
#Assange embassy intruder: Ecuador releases statement criticising UK over security response https://t.co/L640KJrjkZ pic.twitter.com/Ghkj66E0uO
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 23, 2016
"The Ecuadorian Government therefore expressed its concern about the inadequate response by the British authorities, who only arrived at the embassy more than two hours after the incident took place."
Scotland Yard scaled back on its multi-million dollar 24-hour surveillance of the embassy in October 2015, saying the operation was "no longer proportionate."
The cost of maintaining 24-hour surveillance of the embassy near Harrods came to over US$14.5 million.
Assange has spent four years held up in the Ecuadorian Embassy where he was granted political asylum to avoid extradition to the United States, where he could be charged with espionage for leaking classified documents.
The Wikileaks founder is wanted for questioning in Sweden over a sex allegation which he denies. Prosecutors in Sweden have since agreed to question Assange inside the embassy. A date is yet to be set.
