Britain’s Prince Andrew was challenged by jittery royal protection officers in the gardens of Buckingham Palace last week as they stepped up security following a break-in, police admitted yesterday.
The Duke of York, the third child of Queen Elizabeth II, was approached by two armed officers as he took an evening stroll on Wednesday at the monarch’s official London residence, a spokesman for Scotland Yard said.
However, the spokesman denied a newspaper report that the officers had pointed guns at the 53-year-old duke and shouted at him to get down on the ground.
“On Wednesday, 4 September at approximately 1800 hours two uniformed officers approached a man in the gardens of Buckingham Palace to verify his identity,” the spokesman said.
“The man was satisfactorily identified. No weapons were drawn and no force was used,” he added.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the incident.
Police said on Saturday they had arrested a man who scaled a fence to get into Buckingham Palace.
No members of the royal family were in the palace at the time of the incident on Monday night, a spokesman for London’s Metropolitan Police said.
The man was found “in an area currently open to the public during the day” and arrested for burglary, trespassing and criminal damage, the spokesman said.
A second man was arrested outside the palace for conspiracy to commit burglary.
“A review of the specific circumstances of this incident is being carried out,” the police spokesman said.
Both men were bailed to return to a London police station at a later date.
It was not immediately clear why the incident had only come to light five days after it happened.
It is one of the most serious security breaches at the palace since 1982, when unemployed Michael Fagan got inside the queen’s private chambers while she was in bed.
Fagan spent 10 minutes talking to the queen after climbing over the palace walls and up a drainpipe, and she raised the alarm when Fagan asked for a cigarette.
Queen Elizabeth, 87, is currently spending her summer break at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese