By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC NewsA man holding a knife to his neck was immobilized with a stun gun by police outside London’s Buckingham Palace during Sunday’s Changing of the Guard ceremony.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld (https://twitter.com/NBCNewsWorld) Smartphone video of the incident, published on news sites including the Daily Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9845438/Man-with-knives-tasered-outside-Buckingham-Palace.html), showed the man being brought to the ground by the police weapon.
He was immediately arrested and is in custody, according to a Metropolitan Police spokesman, although it is not yet clear if he will be charged with any offense.
The incident happened at 11:55 a.m. local time (6:55 a.m. ET) on the street outside the palace gates in the west end of central London.
It was witnessed by hundreds of tourists who had gathered to see the 45-minute Changing of the Guard ceremony (http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/buckinghampalace/what-to-see-and-do/changing-the-guard).
The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, were at their rural home in Sandringham, Norfolk, at the time.
Buckingham Palace said it would not comment, according to ITV News (http://www.itv.com/news/london/2013-02-03/man-tasererd-at-buckingham-palace/).
NBC News