Speculation over an attempt on the life of Wikileaks founder and political refugee Julian Assange is rife today after a man was detected scaling the wall of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where Mr. Assange has been living for the past four years.

In a statement released by their Twitter account, the Wikileaks organisation reported a “Male intruder” had been caught climbing a wall and window of the embassy at 02:47 Monday morning. The organisation, which gained global fame by publishing caches of leaked government documents online, said the intruder then “fled after being caught by security”.

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

Although neither the Ecuadorian government nor Wikileaks have made any further comment on the attempted break-in, speculation has been rife on social media over the intended target of the climber. Given that high-profile transparency activist Julian Assange lives in the embassy many have speculated the attempted break-in may have been a planned assassination.

https://twitter.com/ConservativeZNJ/status/767544457000607745

Given the prowler was able to escape after detection, some even expressed concern the climber may have even been a paid hitman, rather than an amateur lone-wolf. Twitter user ‘Weseeu’ said as much when he speculated whether it was a “professional”, remarking: “Gotta be pretty slick to slip away”.

automatically makes me think professional. Gotta be pretty slick to slip away. — weseeu (@NRiddlebaugh) August 22, 2016

Others went so far as to speculate over who may have sent such an assassin to the Ecuadorian embassy, with United States Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Billionaire left-activism bankroller George Soros among the most named by Twitter users.

https://twitter.com/RailtonLoy1/status/767564607527407617

Many of the claims regarding Clinton’s supposed link to what has been called an attempted assassination centers around conspiracy theories regarding the death in July of 27-year-old Seth Rich. Major American news magazine Newsweek reports the Democrat National Committee (DNC) employee was shot multiple times in the back while walking home from a bar, which gave birth to a number of theories surrounding his supposed execution.

@NetworksManager my guess is it's the same #Hillary #soros assassin who knocked off #sethrich and the dnc lawyer — Mike (@toneloque) August 22, 2016

They don't want the next batch of Hillary hacked emails released. Dems running scared. — Mrs. Prim (@PrimMrs) August 22, 2016

The magazine reports these theories are centred around the suggestion Rich was about to speak to the FBI about “damning internal DNC emails”. Weeks later, Julian Assange offered a $20,000 reward for information regarding the killing, and as Newsweek reported: “He hinted darkly that the slain man had been a source in the embarrassing 30,000 internal DNC emails his organization had recently published”.

Just days ago, a National Review article reported that Assange was still holding onto the majority of leaked Democrat emails, and was planning to release them at strategic points throughout the U.S. Presidential campaign.

Mr. Assange is wanted in Sweden to answer accusations of sex crimes. He has been claiming asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy for over four years to avoid extradition to the United States where he is wanted to leaking government documents.