Man holding Palestinian flag seen climbing up Palace of Westminster
Emergency services have been at the Palace of Westminster for most of the day as a man who scaled the tower which houses Big Ben remains there.
Video on social media shows a barefoot man stood on a ledge several metres up the Elizabeth Tower holding a Palestinian flag in an apparent protest.
Police said they were called to the scene at 7.24am this morning.
Following the security breach at Parliament, a fire engine later raised a cherry picker to the same height as the man's position on the tower.
'When we saw the man we thought this is for real,' says one onlooker.
Three people standing on the crane have been talking with the man, who is several feet away.
The climber has been sharing videos on Instagram from his viewpoint on the tower as a woman in plain clothes speaks to him from the cherry picker.
The woman says: "At some point you have to come down. How long do you think you are going to be there? How long do you think you are able to be there?"
Her voice is then barely audible as she appears to say "your message was to say 'Free Palestine'" before she encourages him to come down.
In one of the videos, the man seems to suggest he plans to stay on the ledge for three and a half days.
Photographs have shown the man sat on the ledge with the flag and a keffiyeh, a headdress worn by men in the Middle East, wrapped around the decorative stonework on the tower.
A large red stain which appears to be blood can be seen on the side of the tower around the climber's feet.
Meanwhile, the whole of Westminster Bridge was closed later in the morning as emergency services responded to the incident.
And parliamentary tours on Saturday have been cancelled as a result of the incident, a parliamentary spokesperson said.
A Met Police spokesperson said: "At 7.24am on Saturday March 8 officers were alerted to a man climbing up the Elizabeth Tower at the Houses of Parliament.
"Officers are at the scene working to bring the incident to a safe conclusion. They are being assisted by the London Fire Brigade and the London Ambulance Service."
Bridge Street, which is at the north end of Westminster Bridge, has been closed to allow the emergency services to deal with the incident, police confirmed.
A spokesman for London Fire Brigade (LFB) said crews from Lambeth, Chelsea, Soho and Islington fire stations have been deployed.
At least nine emergency service vehicles have lined the street in central London as crowds look on from beyond a police cordon.
A parliamentary spokesperson said: "We are aware of an incident on the Parliamentary Estate this morning, which is being handled by the Metropolitan Police, assisted by the London Fire Brigade and the London Ambulance Service.
"Parliament takes security extremely seriously, however we do not comment on the specifics of our security measures or mitigations. As a result of this incident, tours of the Parliamentary Estate today have unfortunately had to be cancelled."
It comes as dozens of people gathered for a pro-Palestinian protest in central London.
The crowd assembled on the corner of Parliament Square and appeared to be showing support for the man who climbed up Big Ben.
Trump's Turnberry golf course vandalised
The protest in Westminster comes as the Palestine Action group said it had sprayed "Gaza is not for sale" on Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course in Scotland.
Sharing an image of the vandalism on Saturday morning, the group wrote on X: "Whilst Trump attempts to treat Gaza as his own property, he should know his own property is within reach."
The Turnberry protest comes after the American president claimed the US will "take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too".
-SKY NEWS
