London’s Palace of Westminster was placed on lockdown Friday morning after a man believed to be carrying a knife was reportedly disabled with a Taser stun device and arrested by police officers outside the Palace Yard gate.
The location of the arrest is just yards away from the scene of April’s terror attack in which Muslim terrorist Khalid Masood crashed his car over Westminster Bridge and stabbed and killed PC Keith Palmer, who was protecting the Palace. Eyewitnesses described a man in a grey hooded sweater — described as a “bearded man” by the BBC — being detained after a shout of “knife knife knife”.
Images tweeted from bystanders to the scene show heavily armed police standing over, and by the man as he was arrested. Officers cleared the area of pedestrians and deployed barriers around the scene — the Palace Yard gate having been closed immediately as the incident unfolded. Police said in a statement:
“At 11.10am on Friday a man was detained near to the Palace of Westminster. The man – aged in his 30s – was arrested on suspicion of possession of a knife. There are no reports of any injuries.”
This latest knife arrest outside the Palace of Westminster also follows a similar incident in April, when a 27 year old man was arrested with a rucksack of knives, including two large kitchen knives. He was arrested after a stop and search and detained under counter-terror legislation.
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