LONDON: Police swooped on a man armed with knives meters away from the Houses of Parliament in London yesterday, arresting him on suspicion of preparing “acts of terrorism”.

The 27-year-old man was pinned to the ground in the middle of the road close to the Treasury and entrances to Westminster station on the London Underground train network. The area has been on a state of heightened alert since a deadly attack on March 22 perpetrated by Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old convert to Islam.

Masood drove into pedestrians, killing four, and stabbed a police officer to death at the gates of parliament before being shot dead by an armed officer. London’s Scotland Yard police headquarters said nobody was injured in yesterday’s incident. They said the man was arrested at 2:22pm (1322 GMT) following a “stop and search” procedure as part of an ongoing operation.

The man “was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and on suspicion of the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism”, Scotland Yard said. “Knives have been recovered from him. “He is being detained under the Terrorism Act and is in custody in a south London police station. — AFP