Man arrested after crashing into London’s Downing Street gate

A man was arrested in London after his car smashed into the gates outside Downing Street, where the British Prime Minister lives and works, on Thursday afternoon.

The incident occurred just two days after a similar crash in front of the White House.

Downing Street has been gated off since 1989 to ward off threats from militants in the Irish Republican Army. The street is not open to the public and armed officers stand guard at all times.

Security forces sprang into action, cordoning off Whitehall Street, the thoroughfare that leads to Downing, and arresting the driver of the vehicle.

“At around 16:20hrs a car collided with the gates of Downing Street on Whitehall,” the Metropolitan Police Force’s Westminster division said in a statement. “Armed officers arrested a man at the scene on suspicion of criminal damage and dangerous driving. There are no reports of any injuries. Enquiries are ongoing.”

Police did not say whether Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had been in his office when the incident occurred.

Some observers caught the crash on video and posted to social media, showing a white car making a slow beeline to the gates across Whitehall. Another shot showed a car flush with the fall metal gates, its trunk ajar.

The man who drove into the White House gates on Monday was in a U-Haul and bearing Nazi flags. Police in London are still determining whether the Downing Street crash was intentional, and what the exact circumstances were.

With News Wire Services