Buckingham Palace
Squatters in Buckingham Gate, near Buckingham Palace, are threat to the Queen's safety claim the property's owner iStock

The Queen's security is at risk from a group of squatters living just a few meters away from Buckingham Palace, it has been claimed.

The group, which calls themselves Autonomous Nation of Anarchist Libertarians (ANAL), face being evicted from the £17m ($21.2m) Buckingham Gate property, after its owner filed papers to the High Court on Friday, (24 February), according to a Sky News report.

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The squatters have hung a banner with the words "rogue embassy" outside the building, and have announced they want to transform the building into a place for "indigenous people" and "nations that are not recognised".

They also insist that they do not plan to do anything and are calling their actions "confrontational theatre".

But a high court document seen by the Press Association, which were also made public via Twitter, claims there is a sinister side to their plan that was announced on the website squat!net.

The document stated that ANAL's intention was to "relocate as close to the Queen's [sic] bedroom as possible… Overlooking Wellington barracks (sic) which is just yards away from Buckingham Palace's gardens".

In a witness statement, Archie Riby-Williams, a director of owning company 18-19 Buckingham Gate Investments Limited, said: "If the defendants were to access the roof of 18 Buckingham Gate, in particular, this would enable them to see directly into the gardens of Buckingham Palace and this would, in fact, appear to be the defendant's objective."

It went on to explain a previous manager, Alfred Havilland, was regularly contacted by snipers stationed at neighbouring Wellington Barracks, who expressed concern about the roof of 18 Buckingham Gate, as did Paul Purdey, a Royal Specialist Protection Officer at Buckingham Palace.

In the court document, a Captain Weeks from Wellington Barracks commented that the presence of 100 squatters would pose a risk to the Queen's security.

One of the squatting activists said: "It is a very high-profile building. As a sport, it is an achievement even having a squat for a couple of days.

"It is an achievement to get as near as we can to Buckingham Palace, not that we are going to do anything.

"It is theatre for us. It is confrontation theatre."

Another activist added they intended to move from "building to building" throughout London.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: "We never comment on security, which is a matter for the police."

The Buckingham Gate property is owned by the banker Bahraini Abdulrahman Aljasmi. Developer Simpson Haugh and Partners is said to be interested in buying 18-19 Buckingham Gate in order to turn it into 14 luxury apartments.