A knifeman who attacked two police officers outside Queen Elizabeth II’s Buckingham Palace residence in London on Friday night has been arrested, British police said Saturday.
The 26-year-old attacker stopped his car near a police vehicle in a restricted area outside the world famous palace early Friday night, according to police.
“Officers spotted a large knife in his vehicle and went to arrest him,” said the police statement.
“During the course of detaining the man, two male police officers suffered minor injuries to their arm,” it added.
The officers were taken to a hospital for treatment.
No members of the royal family were in the palace at the time. The queen was at her Balmoral residence in Scotland, although the palace said it would not comment on security issues.
A Police spokeswoman said she was unable to comment at this stage on the motivation for the incident, however it was clarified that detectives from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command are investigating the incident.
A Reuters witness near the scene said police had cordoned off a large area for security, including The Mall, a wide avenue leading up to the palace.
Another eyewitness Kiana Williamson told the Press Association that “there was one police van and one car, there was also a civilian’s car that had veered towards the police car”.
“The man had been restrained and looked almost unconscious by the side of the road,” she added.
The suspect was taken to a London hospital for treatment of minor injuries, according to police, but there were no other reported injuries.
In Britain alone a total of 35 people have been killed in three attacks in London and Manchester since March. Two of those involved a vehicle ploughing into pedestrians.
The other attack was a bombing in May at a pop concert by US star Ariana Grande in the Manchester which left 22 dead including children.