Arrest after man spends night on roof of Parliament

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Media caption,

Victoria Fritz reports: ''The man was pacing up and down for most of the night''

A 23-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and trespassing after spending several hours on the roof of Parliament.

Negotiators, police and the Fire Brigade were called to the scene after being made aware of the incident at 21:15 GMT on Saturday.

Scotland Yard said it was too early to know why the man had been on the roof.

He was arrested at 05:00 GMT on Sunday and was taken to a central London police station.

The roof has previously been targeted by campaign groups, including those opposed to a third runway at Heathrow and by Greenpeace.

However, on this occasion it was not immediately clear if the man was protesting.

BBC News correspondent Victoria Fritz, who was at the scene, said the man - who was wearing a grey jumper and dark trousers - had been pacing up and down between the buttresses of the building.

Prior to his arrest in the early hours of Sunday, the police had been trying to talk to him and there were occasional muffled shouts from the roof, our correspondent said.