Man climbs Palace of Westminster tower with Palestinian flag

Emergency services have been called to the Palace of Westminster, where a man has scaled one of the buildings carrying a Palestinian flag.

A barefoot man was seen stood on a ledge several metres up Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben.

The Met Police said officers were called to the tower at 07:24 GMT on Saturday.

“Officers are at the scene working to bring the incident to a safe conclusion,” the force said.

At least nine emergency service vehicles lined Bridge Street in central London and crowds looked on from beyond a police cordon.

At around 10:00 BST, three emergency personnel were lifted several metres up on a fire brigade aerial ladder platform, with one person using a megaphone to speak to the man on the ledge.

Bridge Street, which is at the north end of Westminster Bridge, is closed to allow the emergency services to deal with the incident, police confirmed.

It is understood one exit of Westminster Tube station is closed, but there is no disruption to Tube services and passengers can use other exits.

A spokesman for London Fire Brigade (LFB) said they were responding to the incident alongside the police.

Crews from Lambeth, Chelsea, Soho and Islington fire stations have been deployed, LFB said.

The London Ambulance added that it had sent an ambulance crew, an incident response officer, and members of its hazardous area response team (HART) to the scene.