Man Arrested in Buckingham Palace Security Breach

The man was allegedly found on palace grounds Wednesday evening.

ByABC News
May 19, 2016, 11:26 AM
An armed police officer and soldiers from the Irish Guards are seen on guard after a security breach at Buckingham Palace in central London, May 19, 2016.
An armed police officer and soldiers from the Irish Guards are seen on guard after a security breach at Buckingham Palace in central London, May 19, 2016.
Jonathan Brady/AP Photo

— -- A man was arrested Wednesday night after allegedly scaling the walls of Buckingham Place

The unidentified man, 41, was detained and arrested seven minutes after alarms went off at the London palace. The suspect, who remains in custody, was unarmed and tasers were not used in the incident, according to police.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman declined to comment on the matter, telling ABC News, “We never comment on security, which is a matter for the police."

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were at Buckingham Palace Wednesday after attending the state opening of Parliament earlier in the day.

While the unarmed man posed no threat to the queen and Prince Philip, the security breach will again raise troubling issues about royal security when there is a heightened alert because of terrorism concerns.

Earlier this year, a music group gatecrashed the queen's gallery, which is adjacent to the palace, and bypassed security. The gallery, located at the rear of the palace, is not classified as a royal residence but does house an extensive art collection.

In November 2015, a fathers’ rights group scaled the walls of the queen's gallery using a ladder and got onto the roof.

In 2013, a burglar passed three layers of security and was arrested in a Buckingham Palace State Room. Royal security officials did a major review of the incident and promised nothing like it would happen again. Members of the royal family were not in residence at the time.

In 2003, an employee from a tabloid newspaper posed as a footman using a false reference and gained a job inside the palace to show the lack of security inside the grounds. The following year, a man dressed as Batman from a fathers' rights group was arrested on the palace balcony.

The worst Buckingham Palace security breach occurred in 1982 when Michael Fagan climbed a drainpipe making it as far as Her Majesty's bedroom. The queen alerted security immediately and Fagan was apprehended.

In the case of Wednesday's incident, police said no one was at risk and the palace's security measures "worked effectively."

"I am content that our security measures worked effectively on this occasion and at no time was any individual at risk," Cmdr. Adrian Usher, head of the Met Police's royalty and specialist protection, told the BBC.