An incident that involved shotgun cartridges and loud explosions forced Buckingham Palace into lockdown early yesterday morning.
British police said a man had approached the Buckingham Palace gates at 7pm on May 2 (4am AEST on May 3) and threw “suspected” shotgun cartridges into the palace grounds.
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Bystanders who were camping out for King Charles’ upcoming coronation told The Sun that they heard the man screaming, “I’m going to kill the King!”
“He was in his 30s. He’s been here the last few nights shouting, ‘I’m going to kill the King,’” one witness said.
Police quickly detained the man and then arrested him after finding a knife on his person.
They said in a statement, “The man has been arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon after he was searched and a knife was found.”
The statement also disclosed that the police were not treating the incident as a terrorism-related matter.
Buckingham Palace confirmed that neither King Charles nor Queen Camilla were at the palace during the incident.
However, King Charles had been at Buckingham Palace with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese just hours before the shotgun cartridges were thrown.
It was also announced that after the incident, a controlled explosion was conducted by specialists as a precaution and that extra security measures would be added to the palace and its surroundings in the lead up to the coronation.
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Ben Briscoe, head of programming at GB News, was in the area at the time of the incident and the controlled explosion and appeared on the program to share his experience.
“There was definitely a very, very loud explosion … As it stands the Palace and the surrounding areas are in total lockdown,” he said.
The lockdown has since been lifted but investigations are continuing.
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