Sunday Herald, The: London Eye faces roulette makeover

The London Eye may be turned into a giant roulette wheel in a surreal stunt by the man behind the "flash mobbing" craze.

The bizarre phenomenon arrived in Britain last week when 300 chanting people suddenly converged, on a London furniture store.

The crowd, who disappeared as quickly as they arrived, were acting on instructions posted on the Internet by a man calling himself A Zee.

The event followed similar incidents in the United States and Europe earlier this year.

Zee yesterday said: "There is no political statement. There is no religious statement. It is completely just for fun.

"Everybody who does it is sort of in on the joke so there is a clique thing going on. It is a little bit of street theatre, a little bit of performance and a lot of joke. All the passers-by were craning their necks and saying 'Who is in the shop? Who is in the shop?'.

"There was nobody in the shop - people couldn't comprehend that there was a crowd formed for no reason.

"It was drawing a secondary crowd who were looking at the first crowd."

A Zee outlined his plan to target the giant wheel that has become a major landmark and tourist attraction on the south bank of the Thames.

He said he wanted to "turn the London Eye into a giant roulette wheel and play roulette on the plaza in front of it". That will not be the next flash mobbing event, but "may be further down the line", Zee said.

"I can't divulge at all what the next one will be, because the whole thing behind these things is the secrecy," he said.