Queen Elizabeth’s son Prince Andrew was confronted by armed police in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, a newspaper reported yesterday, days after two men were arrested in a security breach at the British monarch’s main London residence.
Police shouted at the 53-year-old prince to “put your hands up and get on the ground,” the Sunday Express said, citing an unnamed royal source.
He was said to be strolling the grounds after attending an event in central London on Wednesday.
London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed that two of its officers had stopped a man in the palace gardens and asked him to verify his identity.
“The man was satisfactorily identified. No weapons were drawn and no force was used,” the police said in a statement.
Later yesterday Prince Andrew accepted an apology from the police. The officers had apparently failed to recognise the Prince, who was strolling the grounds in broad daylight in the late afternoon on Wednesday.
In a statement, Prince Andrew said: “The police have a difficult job to do, balancing security forthe royal family and deterring intruders, and sometimes they get it wrong.
“I am grateful for their apology and look forward to a safe walk in the garden in the future.”
Two days earlier, police arrested a man, who had been found inside the palace, on suspicion of burglary, trespass and criminal damage.
A second man was arrested outside the palace on suspicion of conspiracy to commit burglary. Both men were released on bail.
The Queen was not in the palace at the time but in her castle in Balmoral, Scotland.
Former London police chief Ian Blair said it was impossible to make any site completely secure.
“They will have to look at this,” he told Sky News. “The story of the burglar is a much more difficult story than the Andrew story.”