Sept. 16 (UPI) — A 25-year-old man was arrested near London’s Buckingham Palace Saturday after scaling a wall to gain entry to the stable area, police said.
The Metropolitan Police said the man entered an area near the Palace’s Royal Mews, a working stables that houses the 260-year-old Gold State Coach, used on state occasions such as May’s coronation of King Charles III.
Buckingham Palace is the British monarch’s official residence in London, the focus of national and royal celebrations and the scene of the Changing the Guard ceremony.
“A man has been arrested in the Royal Mews area adjacent to Buckingham Palace,” police said in a statement issued to media outlets.
“At 01:25 hrs on Saturday, 16 September, officers at Buckingham Palace responded to a person climbing the wall and entering the Royal Mews. Following a search, a 25-year-old man was detained by officers outside the stables in the Royal Mews.
“At no point did the man enter Buckingham Palace or the Palace Gardens,” police said.
Authorities said the suspect was arrested under the “Serious Organised Crime and Police Act for trespassing on a protected site. He has been taken into custody at a London police station where he remains.”
The spokesperson for the Royal Family confirmed that none of the family members were at the Palace on Saturday.
In May, the Metropolitan Police arrested a man who threw several items, including suspected shotgun cartridges, into the grounds of Buckingham Palace amid preparations for Charles’ coronation later that week.
Neither Charles nor the Queen Consort, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, were at the palace when that arrest occurred.