A man was in police custody yesterday after being Tasered outside Buckingham Palace while shouting and holding a knife to his own neck.
The man, thought to be in his 50s, was seen ranting and also pressing another six-inch blade to his chest, while holding a set of beads.
As a policeman shot him with the Taser, he lunged at the officer, taking a series of swipes before the electrical charge knocked him to the ground.
The drama unfolded as hundreds of tourists and Londoners gathered outside the palace for the midday changing of the guard.
Witnesses said the suspect, who was arrested on suspicion of affray, broke through a barrier and was walking towards the guards when he was stopped by police who were "on him in seconds".
A video posted on YouTube shows the bespectacled man shouting and walking round while holding the knives against his body before an officer stuns him with the charge.
He was quickly surrounded and the weapons kicked out of harm's way while officers checked him over.
Eyewitness Kevin Burrows, 33, from Surrey, said the man broke through a cordon as the changing of the guard was about to happen.
The kitchen porter said: "I thought, 'Oh my God, I can't believe it'. There must have been about 15 police officers on foot who surrounded him once he'd been Tasered. The police saw him really quickly and were obviously cautious.
"He was in his 40s I'd say and I think he had knives in both hands.
"Everybody was standing back when it happened and people were actually quite calm, I think everyone was surprised.
"They had to divert the procession away from him. I think he was making his way to the guards. The man didn't have the chance to get close to anyone as the police were right on him in seconds."
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were at Sandringham at the time of the incident.
A scene was cordoned off with police tape 30 yards from the palace gates, and an ambulance was parked to the side of the building.
Inside the cordoned-off area lay the two knives, a pair of Nike high-top trainers, the man's hat and a black carrier bag containing paper and material. A handkerchief lay beside the bag.
The scene created confusion among those tourists who had not seen the incident.
After the suspect was taken into custody and the procession had finished, tourists arriving at the palace asked police if the items were part of an exhibition.
"It is not what you expect to see outside Buckingham Palace," one holidaymaker said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article