Knife attacks in London, Brussels
LONDON — A man armed with a knife was detained outside London’s Buckingham Palace Friday evening, and two police officers were injured while arresting him, police said.
The Metropolitan Police force says two officers suffered minor injuries while detaining the suspect, who is being held on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and assaulting police.
Police said the officers did not require hospital treatment. No other injuries were reported.
A large number of police vehicles could be seen in the Mall, the wide road outside the palace.
Buckingham Palace is one of London’s main tourist attractions, and the London home of Queen Elizabeth. The Queen, however, usually spends August in Scotland at her Balmoral estate with family members.
A palace spokeswoman said the palace did not comment on security issues.
Meanwhile, Belgian soldiers shot a man dead in downtown Brussels on Friday evening after he attacked them with a knife in what prosecutors described as a “terror attack.”
Spokeswoman Esther Natus of the federal prosecutor’s office, which handles terrorism investigations, said the man twice shouted “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” as he ran at the soldiers.
“We do consider it a terror attack,” Natus said. She declined to identify the man or confirm whether he was known to police, saying only that “the suspect is dead” and one of the soldiers was slightly wounded.
Brussels Mayor Philippe Close said three soldiers came under attack and one had been hospitalized.
FederalPolicespokesmanJonathan Pfunde also confirmed some details of the incident and said the attacker had been “neutralized.”
“All our support is with our soldiers,” Prime Minister Charles Michel said via Twitter. “Our security services remain on alert. We are following the situation closely.”
TV images showed that police sealed off a main street near the Grand Place, a central square that is a popular tourist site.
A man who lives near where the incident took place on Boulevard Emile Jacquemain said he saw the attacker lying in the street in the aftermath.