Fears that Queen's safety is 'under threat' after armed man is arrested for breaking into Windsor Castle

Former royal protection officers have expressed concern over the Queen's safety after a man with a cross-bow was arrested on Christmas day trying to break into Windsor Castle.

• An armed 19-year-old man from Southampton was arrested at 8:30am on Christmas day in the grounds of Windsor Castle. The Metropolitan Police have since shared that the suspect has been sectioned and is now "in the care of medical professionals".
• A former bodyguard of Diana, Princess of Wales has now shared his fears for the Queen's safety, asking that security be 'beefed up' following the incident.
• This royal news comes after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle shared a heartfelt tribute to ‘friend’ Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The Queen's safety is "clearly under threat" following a recent incident with an intruder at Windsor Castle, says a former bodyguard to Princess Diana.

Fresh fears over security at Windsor have been voiced after an armed man was detained within the castle grounds on Christmas day. A 19-year-old from Southampton was arrested on suspicion of breach or trespass of a protected site and possession of an offensive weapon. The Metropolitan Police have since shared that the suspect has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

The 94-year-old monarch was in residence at the time of the attack, having decided to spend Christmas there with Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall after cancelling her traditional Royal Family Sandringham Christmas plans.

Two ex-protection officers have now told The Mirror that a review into security at Windsor should be underway.

And later the Queen's extreme security measures were revealed following the incident.

Ken Wharfe, a former bodyguard to Princess Diana, told the paper: "The Queen’s safety is clearly under threat.

“It’s often been thought that Windsor is particularly at risk to intruders due to the make-up of the estate and the severity of this event should really cause alarm bells to start ringing. This individual was caught in time but any system could always be beefed up as any other scenario could be tragic."

The incident is reported as the third security breach at Windsor this year. And Dai Davies, a former head of the Royal Protection Unit agrees that the matter should be looked into further.

"The officers did their job and averted a disaster," he told The Mirror. "Windsor is having an issue with intruders and need to get to the bottom of it before something more sinister comes to pass."

A spokeperson for Scotland Yard confirmed that security were quick to respond to the Christmas Day incident in question.

"Security processes were triggered within moments of the man entering the grounds and he did not enter any buildings."

They added that a full search of the man followed and "a crossbow was recovered". The matter is now being looked into by Metropolitan Police specialist operations.

The Christmas Day incident is being reported as an alleged assasination attempt on the monarch by some media outlets. With The Sun newspaper sharing a video by a masked vigilate who tells the camera he wants to "assasinate the Queen".

A Scotland Yard spokesperson stated that detectives were now "assessing the contents of a video" following the suspects arrest. Though no comment was made on the identity of the individual in the video.