Buckingham Palace has confirmed that a man was detained in the early hours of this morning in Buckingham Palace’s forecourt.
The 22-year-old man is believed to have climbed over the fence from the Buckingham Palace Road side of the building; he was arrested just a few minutes later, according to the BBC.
He did, however, have a chance to begin banging on the doors of the royal residence as it took around four minutes for police to apprehend him due to their assessing whether or not he had a weapon.
Police have said it is not being treated as terrorist-related. The young man does remain in police custody.
Her Majesty The Queen was in residence at the time as she had just returned from a visit to Cambridge. The Queen was said to be sleeping as the security breach took place around 2.00 am.
“Officers have arrested a man on suspicion of trespass, contrary to section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005,” the Metropolitan Police said.
They added, “The 22-year-old man was arrested at approximately 02:00hrs on Wednesday, 10 July by officers from the Met’s Royalty and Specialist Protection Command after he climbed over the front gates at Buckingham Palace.
“The man was not found in possession of any offensive weapons and the incident is not being treated as terrorist-related.
“He remains in custody at a central London police station.”
It was almost 37 years to the day from when Michael Fagan broke into Buckingham Palace and made it into The Queen’s bedroom in 1982. This has led to fears that the 22-year-old was trying to copy Fagan as he would have known Her Majesty was in residence with her standard flying over the palace.