Man held over palace attack as two police injured
A MAN armed with a knife was last night arrested outside Buckingham Palace, leaving two police officers injured.
The suspect is being held on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and assault on police after being stopped in possession of the weapon at around 8.35pm last night on The Mall.
As he was being detained, two male officers suffered “minor injuries” to their arms, the Metropolitan Police said. The London Ambulance Service attended to treat the injured men but they were not taken to hospital. No other people were injured.
Images posted online showed a heavy police presence outside the palace, with emergency vehicles packing out the road. Armed police were reported to be among those responding to the incident.
Twitter user Amir Jan Malik wrote: “Stuck outside Buckingham palace with many armed police officers.”
Witness Nicole Kyle was walking home when she saw armed police swoop on the scene and quickly put up a cordon.
The 25-year-old consultant said: “I was walking toward The
Mall and St James’s Park when I saw police rush down toward the palace in great numbers. As we got further down The Mall we saw armed police outside a police van, at which point we were able to walk closer to the palace still, where we were eventually stopped by a cordon.
“All we were told was that there’s been an incident. A few minutes later police came by to have us clear the area and move further away from the palace. We then saw that police had expanded the cordon. It looks like the cordon is continuing to expand.”
The Metropolitan Police said it was too early to know whether the incident was terror-related.
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said it does not comment on security issues.
The news came after a Belgian soldiers shot dead a man in the centre of Brussels after he attacked troops with a knife yesterday.
“A man armed with a knife attacked a group of soldiers. The soldiers fired at him and neutralised the individual,” said Belgian Federal Police spokesman Jonathan Pfunde.
Esther Natus, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor’s office, confirmed “the suspect is dead”.
She said one soldier was “slightly injured”.
Belgium’s anti-terror crisis centre said in a tweet that the “situation is under control”.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel also tweeted: “All our support is with our soldiers. Our security services remain on alert. We are following the situation closely.”
Associated Press television images from central Brussels showed police had sealed off a main street not far from the Belgian capital’s main Grand Place tourist attraction.
Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers killed 32 people in attacks on March 22, 2016 on the Brussels main airport and subway system.
The incidents follow an attack by an Islamic cell that attacked pedestrians in Barcelona and the nearby seaside town of Cambrils last week in which 15 people died and more than 100 were injured. A number of terrorists died and a number of suspects were arrested.