Police detain 6 climbers who wanted to scale Cologne's famous cathedral

Police said they were informed by private security guards that the young climbers were climbing with headlamps in the middle of the night.

German police in Cologne on Sunday detained five Frenchmen and a Belgian woman who had tried to climb the city's famous cathedral.

The Cologne cathedral is one of the oldest Catholic pilgrimage sites in Germany (AP)

Police said they were informed by the church's private security guards who spotted the young climbers with headlamps on their surveillance cameras in the middle of the night.

Police officers in riot gear surrounded the cathedral and a helicopter hovered over the northern dome, until the five climbers were detained inside the tower's stairwell. Authorities said the men were aged between 18 and 27 years, the woman was 26. Their identities were not revealed in line with German privacy rules.

Police confiscated a camera, a cellphone and a lock pick. During their search of the building, they discovered several doors that had apparently been broken up and rucksacks containing climbing equipment.

The double-domed cathedral is a tourist attraction and one of the oldest, most important Catholic pilgrimage sites of Northern Europe. It's considered Germany's most famous house of worship.