Four people have been arrested in London after apple crumble was thrown at a display case containing the historic Crown Jewels.<\/p>\n
An organisation called Take Back Power, which describes itself as a civil resistance group, posted footage of the incident on social media and said two of its members had smothered the Imperial State Crown display case with apple crumble and custard.<\/p>\n
The four protesters were arrested at The Tower of London, police said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“They have been taken into custody. The Jewel House has been closed to the public while the police investigation continues,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
The event triggered a temporary closure of part of the historic building housing the Crown Jewels.<\/p>\n
The Imperial State Crown is worn by King Charles on some official occasions, such as the state opening of Parliament.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Take Back Power protesters in the historic building housing the Crown Jewels. (Reuters: Supplied\/Take Back Power)<\/p>\n
He also wore it on his return to Buckingham Palace after his coronation in Westminster Abbey in 2023.<\/p>\n
More than 3 million people visit the 1,000-year-old fortress every year, with the famous Crown Jewels \u2014 made up of crowns, orbs, sceptres and other regalia \u2014 being one of the main draws.<\/p>\n
Historic Royal Palaces, which manages the Tower, said its staff responded quickly to the incident. The Jewel House was briefly closed while the police carried out their investigation.<\/p>\n
Britain’s King Charles wearing the Imperial State Crown. (Reuters: Hannah McKay)<\/p>\n
Take Back Power said its protest was to highlight its demands for the government to tax the super rich.<\/p>\n
It is “demanding that the UK government establish a permanent citizen’s assembly \u2026 which has the power to tax extreme wealth and fix Britain”, according to a statement posted online.<\/p>\n
Both suspected perpetrators in the footage wore T-shirts with “take back power” and a logo emblazoned on the front.<\/p>\n
“Democracy has crumbled!” the woman said, as the custard-throwing man shouted, “Britain is broken!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
“We’ve come here, to the jewels of the nation, to take back power,” he added.<\/p>\n
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The Crown Jewels are displayed at the Tower of London. (Reuters: Isabel Infantes)<\/p>\n
The footage, filmed by another person close by, showed a female staff member with a walkie-talkie attempting to intervene, repeatedly shouting, “Excuse me!” as she radioed for help.<\/p>\n
The incident is the latest example of so-called direct action demonstrations, targeting cultural, sporting and other sites in Britain and beyond.<\/p>\n
Stunts have included targeting Vincent van Gogh’s glass-protected Sunflowers painting with tomato soup and daubing Stonehenge with orange paint powder.<\/p>\n
The Crown Jewels were not damaged during the stunt, the Historic Royal Palaces charity, which manages the Tower of London, said.<\/p>\n
The Crown Jewels are Britain’s most precious treasures, including regalia used at coronations of new monarchs.<\/p>\n
Comprising more than 100 objects and over 23,000 gemstones, they are considered “of incalculable cultural, historical, and symbolic value,” according to Historic Royal Palaces.<\/p>\n
The jewels are part of the Royal Collection, held in trust by the monarch for the nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four people have been arrested in London after apple crumble was thrown at a display case containing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[192390,47657,748,192389,184400,31,393,4884,257,529,18744,192391,56597,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-617553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-apple-crumble","9":"tag-arrest","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-crown-jewels","12":"tag-custard","13":"tag-democracy","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-london","17":"tag-police","18":"tag-protest","19":"tag-take-back-power","20":"tag-tower-of-london","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115677333805429256","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}