Paraglider lands at Buckingham Palace

The Queen was not at home when the paraglider landed

LONDON, England -- Police have arrested a man who landed a paraglider at Buckingham Palace in London.

The 36-year-old intruder has yet to be named and officers gave no indication why he had flown into the palace.

The suspect was taken into custody by Royal protection officers, and was being questioned on Thursday in central London, the Metropolitan Police said.

A police helicopter had followed the paraglider as he approached the palace at about 1300 GMT, police said.

Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the Royal family were away at the time, Buckingham Palace said. They have been spending the Christmas holiday at her home in Sandringham, Norfolk.

It was the first aerial intrusion at the palace since February 1994, when American paraglider James Miller of Henderson, Nevada, landed on the palace roof. Miller stripped off his pants to display his green-painted skin before he was arrested and taken away.

Buckingham Palace has featured as a "target" for many uninvited visitors over the years:

In 1982, Michael Fagan broke into the Royal apartments at Buckingham Palace and managed to get into the Queen's bedroom while she slept. She awoke to find Fagan sitting on the end of her bed.

In 1993, a group of women anti-nuclear protesters used ladders to climb the walls at Buckingham Palace before cutting barbed wire and getting within yards of the Royal apartments before armed officers arrived. They sat on the lawn for 15 minutes singing and chanting.

In 1995, student John Gillard, 21, drove 200 miles from his Wakefield home before ramming the gates of Buckingham Palace at high speed with his car. One of the two-and-a-half-tonne gates was ripped off its hinges by the 50mph impact but the Royal family was not at home and no one was hurt. Gillard was detained under the Mental Health Act.

In 1997, an urgent inquiry was launched after an absconded mental patient Alastair Coe managed to breach tight security to wander around the palace grounds.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The British Monarchy

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