Man with sword arrested near Buckingham Palace

LONDON – Counterterrorism police are investigating after a 26-year-old man armed with a sword was arrested near Buckingham Palace late Friday, London’s Metropolitan Police said Saturday.

It said the unidentified man from the Luton area, north of London, “deliberately drove at a police van and stopped in front of it in a restricted area” close to the royal palace.

Three unarmed officers left the van and challenged the man, who “reached for what we now know to be a 4-foot sword which was in the front passenger foot well.”

The three officers all sustained minor injuries as they used CS spray to subdue the suspect, who “repeatedly shouted ‘Allahu akbar’(God is greatest)” during the struggle, the force said.

The police said the man was arrested on suspicion of “grievous bodily harm and assault on police,” and as terrorism.

“We believe the man was acting alone and we are not looking for other suspects at this stage,” Commander Dean Haydon, the police force’s head of counterterrorism, said in a statement. “While we cannot speculate on what the man was intending to do – this will be determined during the course of the investigation – it is only right that we investigate this as a terrorist incident at this time.”

The man was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, but was later discharged and taken to a central London police station for questioning.

No members of the royal family were believed to have been at home at the time.