A man who scaled the lower sections of Big Ben's Elizabeth Tower at London's Palace of Westminster early on Saturday has came down after 16 hours and was subsequently arrested, the British police said on Sunday.
He was waving a Palestinian flag and shouted "free Palestine," according to British media.
"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 while minimizing risk to life," a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said.
The point of view of a pro-Palestinian protester who climbed Big Ben in London
Pro-Palestinian protester climbs Big Ben in London
(Video: Sky News)
Emergency crews had gone up in a crane to negotiate with the man, and he came down after earlier telling negotiators he would come down "on his own terms", according to a Sky News report.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police earlier said they were alerted to the incident at Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben) at 7:24 local time.
Emergency services closed Westminster Bridge on Saturday morning in response to the incident, and parliamentary tours were also cancelled, Sky News had reported. All roads have been reopened following the man's arrest, the police added.
According to the Daily Mail, the protest triggered a "massive emergency response," with rescue teams deploying a crane to bring the man down safely.
Videos filmed by onlookers captured the protester shouting, “I’m not going anywhere” and calling to “free Palestine.” Witness Luke Whelan told the Daily Mail, “I was cycling to work when I saw him climbing up Big Ben. It looked like he was on a video call or livestreaming. He seemed pretty calm up there, like Spider-Man.”
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Bloody feet of protester who climbed Big Ben in London can be seen
(Photo: Ben Sstansall / AFP)
The protester shared videos on Instagram from his perspective on the tower, in one of which he also documented the moments when he climbed the fence outside the tower and then onto the tower itself. In another video, he documented the rescuers who were hoisted up to him in a crane in an attempt to convince him to come down. "At some point you're going to have to come down, how long do you think you're going to be up there?" one of them is heard telling him, but he refused to come down. In the videos, he is also seen bleeding from his feet.
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In another video posted by the man, he is heard saying: "Democracy is dead, when people are sent to prison for nonviolent civil disobedience protests, when climate activists get three to four years in prison, when activists for Palestine are imprisoned for doing what the government should do, stop weapons from being sent to the terrorist state of Israel." From one of the videos he uploaded, it is clear that he had intended to remain on the tower for three and a half days.
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Emergency crews had gone up in a crane to negotiate with the man and convince him to come down
(Photo: Hannah McKay/Reuters )
Sky News reported that dozens of protesters gathered in the area to demonstrate in support of the man who climbed the tower, and one of them waved a sign against the BBC, to protest that a documentary about Gaza which was removed from the British Broadcasting Corporation's website for not following standard journalistic practice: "Labor, Conservatives, BBC, you present Russia's crimes but hide Israel's... Why?"