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According to the police spokesman London police issued a warning after two men were seen trying to cut live wires carrying 13,000 volts, reports The Sun.

“This could have easily killed or seriously injured anyone that touched the exposed wire,” said Constable Amy Phillipo.

Base metal prices have jumped in last couple of years. The new prices gave the thieves the motiv to strip live wires for copper. Some of them were caught stealing statues and tombstone fixtures.

“Copper and aluminum prices are now at all time highs,” said Wayne Kummer, co-owner of London Salvage on Egerton Street.

Business news reports say that copper is about $4 a pound, but you can get as much as $3.60 at scrap yards. Also aluminum is going for $1.40 a pound. Dealers will pay about $1 a pound.

Kummer’s company has policies to discourage or catch thieves trying to sell stolen metals or steal from his yard.

“We can usually tell if someone’s stolen it and our people are told to watch for anything new. We don’t let anyone in our yard unless they have a vehicle and we record the licence plate and make of vehicle.” said Kummer to The Sun.

“Stealing copper from an energized electric grid is extremely dangerous, putting the lives of the public, employees and the suspects themselves at serious risk of injury or death from electrocution,” said Constable Amy Phillipo in her interview for the local news.
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Its paint may be chipping off, but the famous London Tower Bridge is not falling down - it’s merely getting an $8 million facelift. The British landmark, made famous by the nursery rhyme, “London Bridge Is Falling Down,” will be stripped of its old paint and repainted in its traditional blue and white.

The facelift will take over four years, according to the plan. Work on the landmark bridge will begin in June and will be completed in the winter of 2010. However, the bridge will remain open to traffic during the renovation.

The City Bridge Trust charity will fund the work on the landmark that was opened in 1894 by future King Edward VII and has become one of England’s most recognizable sites.