A mystery man brought Whitehall to a standstill today after he climbed to the top of a historic 30-foot statue - and perched there naked for three hours.
Police were forced to close an entire section of the road - which runs between the Houses of Parliament and Trafalgar Square - while specialist officers tried to coax the man down.
But despite temperatures hovering around 8C, chilled further by a stout south-westerly breeze, the exhibitionist, thought to be in his 30s, remained stubbornly on his perch where he struck a variety of poses.
Finally, after just over three hours atop the life-size memorial to Prince George, the First Duke of Cambridge and a distant cousin of the Queen, he was finally brought down and taken away in a police van.
MailOnline understands he has not been arrested but detained under the mental health act at a secure hospital in London.
The spectacle began at around midday today, when the man scaled the statue and threw all his clothes to the ground.
Crowds of wonder-struck passers by gathered around the police cordon to watch the exhibition unfold.
At one point the man perched acrobatically - with his arms out stretched for balance - upon the Duke's feathered plume, before sitting down on his head.
Onlooker Savannah Severn, 16, said: 'I was on a school trip, on my way to the National Portrait Gallery and I looked up and saw the naked man on the statue.
'There were police on horses pushing the crowd back and firemen were trying to get him down.
'I was really shocked but it was quite funny. It looked like he was posing and he hard his arms stretched out wide.'
The man's motives for the extravagant display of public nudity remain unclear.
Scotland Yard said it was believed that the man might have a knife as officers shut down part of the road, near the heart of Westminster in central London.
Whitehall runs from the Houses of Parliament to Trafalgar Square and is where the Ministry of Defence is situated.
Police had cordoned off a section of around 100 metres of Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square.
Several police cars and ambulances were on the scene.
Crowds of onlookers had gathered at either end of the cordon. The naked man is believed to have been clothed when he climbed on to the statue.
A police officer said the cordon had been pushed back because the man got angry with people taking photos of him.
He said there had been reports of 'implements' being found in the man's clothes.
Passerby Leanne, on her way home from St Thomas' Hospital, said it was hilarious.
'We had to get out of the cab because it couldn't get through - we didn't expect this,' she said.
'It's hilarious, we'll it's obviously not funny for people who can't get through but climbing a statue with no clothes on is one way to bring London to a standstill.'
He could be seen waving his arms, apparently speaking to emergency services on the ground, and did not seem to be holding anything.
A spokesman said: 'We are talking to the man and will try and bring the situation to a resolution a soon as we can.'
While the statue of Prince George will be well-used to pigeons perching on its head, naked people are rare.
Born in Germany in 1819, the Duke was the son of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, the 10th child and 7th son of King George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
As a man he joined the British army and rose to the rank of Commander-in-Chief of the Forces from 1856 to 1895.
He died of a stomach haemorrhage in 1904 at Gloucester House, Piccadilly, London, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London.
His title, the Duke of Cambridge, fell into extinction upon his death and was not revived until 107 years later, when Elizabeth II awarded the title to her grandson, Prince William, now the Second Duke of Cambridge.
Source: Dailymail
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