Trafalgar Square evacuated after police incident

Police were called to the London gallery at 2.35pm today after a man in a ‘distressed condition’ was spotted on its roof

The Met Police was called to the scene (Getty)

The National Gallery has closed and areas of Trafalgar Square have been cordoned off following reports of a ‘distressed’ man on the gallery roof.

Met Police were called to the London art museum at 2.35pm today after a man in a “distressed condition” was spotted on its roof, prompting the gallery to ‘temporarily’ close its doors.

The force said: ‘London Ambulance Service has also attended and are attempting to make contact with the man. Officers have attended and local roads have been closed as a precaution.’”

The National Gallery added: “We can confirm that the Gallery will not reopen today. We will update again as soon as we are able to about visiting the Gallery tomorrow.”

The City of Westminster Police wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Due to an ongoing incident, parts of Trafalgar Square near the National Gallery are closed. Please avoid the area.”

A London Ambulance Service spokesman added: “We were called at 2.41pm today (22 August) to reports of an incident in Trafalgar Square.

“We have sent a number of resources including an ambulance crew, an incident response officer, and members of our Hazardous Area Response Team (HART). Our crews remain at the scene alongside other emergency services.”

The National Gallery is a major London tourist attraction and contains over 2,300 works such as van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait, Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus, Turner’s Fighting Temeraire and Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, according to its website.

All major traditions of Western European art work are included, going as far back to 13th century paintings by Duccio, Uccello, van Eyck, Lippi, Mantegna, Botticelli, Dürer, Memling and Bellini.

Its 20th century paintings include those by Canaletto, Goya, Turner, Constable, Ingres, Degas, Cézanne, Monet and Van Gogh.

In October last year, the gallery closed its doors to one room after Just Stop Oil activists covered Van Gogh’s 1888 Sunflowers work in tomato soup.

The protestors, wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts, threw two tins of Heinz Tomato soup over the £72.5m painting, before kneeling down in front of the painting and applying glue to their hands to stick themselves to a nearby wall.

Visitors were then escorted out by security, who shut the doors to room 43 of the gallery where the painting hangs.