Police Taser armed man near palace

BRITAIN

POLICE were forced to Taser a man yesterday as he ran towards Buckingham Palace wielding two knives in front of throngs of tourists.

The man, thought to be in his 50s, broke from the crowd in the middle of the Changing of the Guard ceremony, holding one blade to his chest and another to his throat.

As an officer tried to intervene, the man lunged at him waving both knives and was shot with the stun gun.

He was arrested on suspicion of affray. Officers at the scene suggested he was known to them.

A police cordon was set up around the scene just 30 metres from the palace gates.

The two knives, a hat, a set of prayer beads and the man’s hightop trainers remained within the cordon alongside the Taser barb and the wire released as the electrical current is discharged from the gun.

The band of the Grenadier Guards continued to play as tourists watched the incident unfold.

Josh Greenberg, a sixth form student at St Paul’s School in London, said: ‘‘I was walking past the palace, heard some commotion in the area next to the Victoria Memorial, looked to my right, [and] the guy ran out into the middle of the square with a knife at his neck.

‘‘Within a few seconds he was surrounded by police horses and officers on foot. Less than two minutes later a car came with officers with Tasers.

‘‘One stood in front of him and the other went around from behind and discharged the Taser,’’ the schoolboy said.

‘‘Then the police got him on the floor, kicked the knives away and put him in the back of a van.’’

A Scotland Yard spokesman said the man had been taken to a police station for questioning and a medical examination.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were at Sandringham at the time.