Man arrested after climbing over Buckingham Palace gate

A man was arrested after climbing over a gate in a security breach at Buckingham Palace.

The 21-year-old man was spotted by officers scaling the gate and arrested as he dropped from the gate on the palace grounds, the Metropolitan Police said.

The alarm was raised when the man was spotted climbing the palace's south gate at 1.45pm. The man was taken into custody on suspicion of trespassing on a designated site, and will undergo a mental health assessment.

The man was not in possession of any offensive weapons, and no members of the royal family were in the palace at the time of the incident.

Buckingham Palace has long been a target for intruders. In August, a 22-year-old man climbed over a security fence but was stopped "within a security perimeter". Earlier in the year a 41-year-old man spent seven minutes on palace grounds after breaching security before being arrested.

The most infamous incident was in 1982, when the Queen awoke to find unemployed decorator Michael Fagan sitting on her bed. He had managed to scale a wall and climb up a drainpipe into the palace before wandering into the Queen's bedroom.