- London police said a car crashed into the gates of Buckingham Palace on Saturday morning.
- A man was subsequently arrested and sectioned under the UK’s Mental Health Act.
- Footage on social media shows a damaged blue hatchback stopped at the royal property’s gates.
An unnamed man was arrested early Saturday morning after a car crashed into the gates of Buckingham Palace, local police said.
The car “collided” with the gates of the royal property around 2:35 a.m. London time, after which officers arrested the man and took him to hospital, the Metropolitan police said.
He was assessed and sectioned under the UK’s Mental Health Act, police added.
The detained man was suspected of criminal damage and has been released on bail.
No one was injured, and authorities are not investigating the case as a terror-related act, police said.
The UK’s Mental Health Act allows police to detain a person for up to 36 hours if they are believed to have a mental disorder and there is a risk to themselves or others, or if said person is being treated at a hospital and there are concerns about their mental health.
Photos of Buckingham Palace on Sunday show its gates boarded up with scaffolding and wooden planks, while waist-high metal fencing shielded the entrance.
JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images
A photo posted on social media appeared to show a damaged blue hatchback at the property’s gates later in the morning.
British news agency SWNS also published a video of a man kneeling outside the gates at night as officers shouted commands at him. A blue hatchback can be seen in the video.
Meanwhile, a portrait of Kate Middleton released by Kensington Palace stirred controversy over the weekend after photo agencies said they were refusing to distribute it.
The photo was the first official image of Middleton since she underwent abdominal surgery in January and was out of the public eye for months, but photo agencies said they were concerned the image was digitally manipulated.
