Man with Palestinian flag climbs London's Big Ben, is surrounded by emergency services
LONDON (AP): Roads around the Palace of Westminster in London were closed on Saturday as emergency services tried to reach a man who climbed the Big Ben tower holding a Palestinian flag.
Photos show the barefoot man, who appeared to be staging a protest, standing on a ledge several meters (yards) up Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben.
Officials said tours of the Houses of Parliament were canceled because of the incident.
Westminster Bridge and a nearby street were closed for much of Saturday and several emergency services vehicles were at the scene as crowds looked on from behind a police cordon.
The Metropolitan Police said officers were “working to bring the incident to a safe conclusion,” alongside firefighters and ambulance services. Police said it received reports about the man around 7 a.m. Saturday. The intruder was still high up the tower Saturday afternoon.
Three emergency workers were lifted up on a fire brigade ladder platform and were seen using a megaphone to speak to the man on the ledge.
No other details were immediately available.
#WATCH: #UK police closes the area around #BigBen in #London after a man holding a #Palestinian flag climbed up the tower housing the famous clock and bell https://t.co/wRNA7hP9v7 pic.twitter.com/L8KvhouWVS
— Arab News (@arabnews) March 8, 2025
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
NEET student hangs self in Rajasthan's Sikar
Jaipur (PTI): A student preparing for the NEET examination allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in a rented room in Rajasthan's Sikar on Friday, police said.
According to the police, the student allegedly hanged himself from a ceiling fan using his sister's scarf while one sister was attending coaching classes and the other was in the bathroom.
He had appeared in the NEET UG exam 2026, which was cancelled due to paper leak, they said.
Udyog Nagar SHO Rajesh Kumar said that the deceased, identified as Pradeep Meghwal, was a resident of Kanika ki Dhani village in Jhunjhunu's Gudha Gaudji area.
He had been living in a rented room in Sikar's Jaldhari Nagar area with his two sisters while preparing for NEET over the last three years.
His elder sister later found him hanging and informed the landlord and police after bringing him down, officials said.
The SHO said the body was kept at SK Hospital mortuary, and a postmortem had not been conducted.
The student's father, Rajesh Kumar Meghwal, told police that Pradeep's NEET examination had gone well and the family was expecting him to score around 650 marks.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot expressed grief over the incident and linked it to anxiety among students after reports of irregularities and paper leaks in NEET 2026.
Pilot said repeated paper leak incidents and cancellation of examinations were affecting students' mental health and demanded a time-bound investigation and strict action against those responsible.
