A protester climbed the Big Ben (Elizabeth Tower) with a Palestinian flag on Saturday, disrupting the public order for most of the day. Police personnel cordoned off the area for passersby and closed Westminster Bridge to traffic.
The man with a keffiyeh was seen sitting on a ledge barefooted partway up the Palace of Westminster, which houses Big Ben. He was sharing videos on Instagram from his viewpoint.
A large crowd gathered below to observe the scene, as emergency services used an aerial ladder platform to try to persuade him to safely descend the iconic landmark.
“At 7.24 a.m. on Saturday 8 March officers, were alerted to a man climbing up the Elizabeth Tower at the Houses of Parliament,” The Guardian quoted a Metropolitan Police spokesperson as saying.
“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,” the police added.
At least nine fire and ambulance vehicles lined Bridge Street to deal with the incident, The Guardian reported.
“Firefighters are responding alongside the Metropolitan Police Service to reports of a person scaling the Palace of Westminster,” a London Fire Brigade spokesperson said.
In the end, it took 16 hours to get him down, when he was arrested.
‘Sick and twisted people’
Meanwhile, in Scotland on Saturday, pro-Palestinian activists spray-painted golf courses belonging to U.S. President Donald Trump, The Guardian reported.
Protesters of the U.K.-based Palestine Action protest network defaced the clubhouse at the Trump Turnberry resort, the report read.
In a video posted on X, activists were also seen spraying the words “GAZA IS NOT 4 SALE” across the lawn at the golf course.
The American president last month proposed the voluntary transfer of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to neighboring countries on a permanent basis. He added that the United States would “take over” the enclave from Israel and turn it into a “Riviera.”
On Wednesday, Trump threatened Hamas in a social media post after an Oval Office meeting with a delegation of eight Israelis who were recently released from captivity in Gaza under a hostage-prisoner exchange between Jerusalem and the terrorist group.
“‘Shalom Hamas’ means hello and goodbye—you can choose,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Release all of the hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is over for you. Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted.
“I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job. Not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say,” the president continued. “Release the hostages now, or there will be hell to pay later.”
