Police have confirmed that a man was arrested after smashing into the gates at Downing Street. The man was taken into custody by armed officers on charges of criminal damage and dangerous driving, City of Westminster Police said, following the crash at about 4:20pm on Thursday. ITV News obtained exclusive footage of a grey-haired man in handcuffs being escorted by the police.

No injuries were reported and police are investigating the “circumstances” of the incident, the Met Police said.

The incident is not considered to be terror-related, police said. The gate was not badly damaged.

A witness told ITV News that the car that hit the gates had backed up and positioned itself opposite the gates before driving towards them.

They said he was driving slowly towards Parliament Square. He stopped, backed up onto the pavement – I thought he was going to crash into the lamppost,” they said.

“Then I heard a bang about 15 seconds later. He didn’t slam into it [Downing Street gates] hard, he was probably going 15-20 mph as he’d only started from across the road.

“He’d stopped, backed up and then drove from 30 metres away.”

The eyewitness commended the police for doing “a good job” and not overreacting. Sources say Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was in Number 10 when the crash happened but has left since then.