A pro-Palestinian protester who climbed the clock tower of Big Ben barefoot and spent more than 16 hours perched on a ledge has been safely brought down by emergency services.
Pictures from the scene showed the man being lifted to the ground in a cherry picker. Westminster police said the man had been arrested after reaching the ground.
“This has been a protracted incident due to the specifics of where the man was located and the need to ensure the safety of our officers, the individual and the wider public,” police said in a statement issued shortly after 1am on Sunday.
“We worked with other agencies including the London fire brigade and deployed specialist officers to bring this incident to a close as quickly as possible whilst minimising risk to life.”
The man had flown the Palestinian flag from a ledge on the Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben in the Houses of Parliament, after breaching security measures by climbing over a fence.
Westminster Bridge had been closed to traffic after a standoff between emergency services and the protester, who scaled the tower without shoes, while carrying the flag.
A large crowd gathered in Parliament Square on Saturday to show their support for the man, who posted on social media at 6pm that he was safe on the ledge and would come down on his own terms when he was ready.
Emergency services used an aerial ladder platform outside the tower to raise themselves towards the man in an attempt to coax him down. A small team of negotiators then began trying to talk the protester down, and he was eventually brought down safely on the stroke of midnight.
Two cherrypickers, an incident response unit ambulance, regular ambulances and two fire engines were at the scene.
At one point, shouts of “free Palestine” and “you are a hero” could be heard from a small group of supporters behind a police cordon.
The protester posted an update on Instagram at about 6pm, filming himself threatening to climb higher if the negotiator on a platform attached to a fire engine came any closer. He said: “I will come down on my terms … Right now, I’m saying I’m safe. If you come towards me, you’re putting me in danger and I will climb higher.”
The negotiators were concerned that the protester would need food or water, or to use the toilet, and that he had been bleeding from an injured foot. “I feel fine,” the protester said. “I’m on a large ledge here. I’m safe.”
He said he had stopped bleeding: “They’re small cuts.” In response, the negotiator said he could see “quite a lot of blood”. Blood appeared to have stained the ledge on which the protester was standing.
The protester replied: “I will tell you if I’m in danger … I’m safe right now … You’re the ones putting me in danger … I’ve told you, if you come towards me, I have no choice other than to climb higher, because I’m not ready to climb down.”
The Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty said on X there needed to be an explanation about how the man got into the parliamentary estate. He said: “Every day in parliament I see dozens of armed police officers patrolling Portcullis House and the parliamentary estate. Where were they today?
“On Monday there needs to be a full explanation to MPs and staff as to how this protester was able to evade security so easily.”
Parliamentary tours were cancelled as a result of the incident, a spokesperson said.
A video thought to be filmed by the protester at 7.20am showed him climbing a fence around the Houses of Parliament.
Pro-Palestine protesters had planned to gather outside Broadcasting House, the BBC’s headquarters in central London, on Saturday. Police said the rally risked “serious disruption” to Jewish people attending Shabbat services at a nearby synagogue and imposed conditions under the Public Order Act to prevent the rally going ahead.
Protest organisers from Palestine Pulse, XR for Palestine and others moved the protest outside Downing Street, with many congregating in Parliament Square.
The Metropolitan police also restricted protest activity near Parliament Square to prevent serious disruption, with pro-Palestine protesters ordered to move from Bridge Street to Richmond Terrace.
In the afternoon, a large crowd gathered on the corner of Parliament Square in support of the protester on Big Ben. Some held signs reading: “Labour Tories BBC you show Russia’s crimes but hide Israel’s … why?”
Reports said the protester had been overheard saying to onlookers below that “peaceful protesters are being brutally arrested” and “I’ve brought the protest to the so-called hub of democracy in the UK”.
The incident came amid a weekend of pro-Palestine protests across the country. Activists targeted one of Donald Trump’s golf courses in Scotland on Saturday. Palestine Action supporters spray-painted the clubhouse at the Trump Turnberry resort and dug up some of the greens overnight.
In a video the group posted on social media, the words “Gaza is not 4 sale” are sprayed on the grass of the course.
The group said its action was a “direct response to the US administration’s stated intent to ethnically cleanse Gaza” after “having laid out plans to ‘clean out the whole thing’ and forcibly displace its population”.
A spokesperson said: “Palestine Action rejects Donald Trump’s treatment of Gaza as though it were his property to dispose of as he likes. To make that clear, we have shown him that his own property is not safe from acts of resistance. We will continue to take action against US-Israeli colonialism in the Palestinian homeland.”
PA Media contributed to this report
