Suspect arrested for plowing into Buckingham Palace gates

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Man arrested after setting small fire outside Buckingham Palace

A man was seen being thrown to the ground and detained by police near a small fire outside Buckingham Palace, London, on Tuesday, December 20. (Credit: Kai Jiun Own via Storyful.)

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Police in London have arrested a driver after he crashed his car into the gates of Buckingham Palace. 

The crash early Saturday “is not being treated as terror-related,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

“Armed officers arrested a man at the scene on suspicion of criminal damage. He was taken to [a] hospital where following assessment he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act,” the police added. “He has been released on bail and inquiries continue.” 

Images taken at the scene on Sunday showed one of the palace’s gates boarded up with a metal fence placed in front of it. 

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Tourists walk past boarded gates after a man was arrested after crashing his vehicle at Buckingham Palace in London on Sunday, March 10. (AP/Frank Augstein)

The cause of the crash – which is not immediately clear – is under investigation. 

Buckingham Palace said no members of the royal family were inside the building at the time of the incident and that the gate is being repaired, according to Reuters. 

Last May, a man was arrested for allegedly throwing shotgun cartridges into the grounds of Buckingham Palace just days ahead of King Charles’ coronation. 

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Armed officers arrested the man at the scene early Sunday on suspicion of criminal damage, and he was taken to a hospital, the Metropolitan Police said. (AP/Frank Augstein)

In that incident, specialists attended and carried out a “controlled explosion” as a precaution, police said, without elaborating. 

A man was also arrested in December 2022 after setting a small fire outside of Buckingham Palace’s front gates. 

Police at the scene outside Buckingham Palace after a man was arrested, and a subsequent controlled explosion was carried out on May 2, 2023 in London. (Photo by Belinda Jiao/Getty Images)

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Video footage from that event showed two officers tackling the man to the ground before arresting him on suspicion of criminal damage. 

Fox News’ Bradford Betz and Peter Aitken contributed to this report. 

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.