Breached: Guardsmen parade outside Buckingham Palace. Photo: AP

LONDON: A man has been arrested in the grounds of Buckingham Palace, the home of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, after scaling a perimeter wall, London police said.

Police said the 41-year-old man was detained on Wednesday, seven minutes after an alarm was activated.

The man was not armed and nor had officers used taser stun guns during the arrest, police said.

Increased security: Armed police officers work at the main gate of Buckingham Palace in London. Photo: AP

"I am content that our security measures worked effectively on this occasion and at no time was any individual at risk," Commander Adrian Usher, head of London police's Royalty and Specialist Protection unit, said.

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Neither the police nor Buckingham Palace would confirm whether the queen or other members of the royal family were at the palace at the time.

Earlier on Thursday the queen, 90, and her 94-year-old husband, Prince Philip, had carried out the ceremonial State Opening of Parliament, where legislative plans for the year are announced. She had returned to the palace afterwards.

Buckingham Palace and its grounds in central London. Photo: PA

A spokesman for the queen said they did not comment on security issues.

The last known security breach at the palace was in October 2013 when a man armed with a knife tried to enter the palace through one of its gates. He was jailed for 16 months.

That took place just a month after two men were arrested following a break-in at the palace in one of the most serious security breaches there for 30 years.

Soldiers stand in heavy rain at Buckingham Palace. Photo: AP

One of the biggest security breaches at Buckingham Palace happened in 1982 when an intruder, Michael Fagan, climbed a wall and wandered into a room where the queen was in bed.

When Buckingham Palace has been breached: 

May 19, 2016: 41-year-old man is arrested in the grounds after scaling an outer perimeter wall at Buckingham Palace.

November 2015: Activists climbed on the roof of Buckingham Palace in a protest over fathers' rights. Martin Matthews, 48, and Bobby Smith, 33, used a ladder to breach security after another campaigner caused distraction outside the palace.

September 2013:  A man scaled a fence and was found in a room that had been open to the public during the day. Another man was arrested outside the palace. Less than 48 hours after the incident, two police officers confronted the Duke of York in the palace gardens demanding to know who he was.

2013:  A man with a six inch kitchen knife was rugby-tackled to the ground by police outside the palace after he jumped over a vehicle barrier in an attempt to see the Queen. David Belmar admitted trespass and possession of a bladed article. The court heard that he wanted to see the Queen because he was unhappy with his benefits.

2012: Four climate change activists were arrested for scaling the palace gates and chaining themselves to the railings.

November 2003: Daily Mirror journalist Ryan Parry sparked a major alert when he managed to become a footman using false references and infiltrated the workings of the Queen's London home. Parry claimed he was given the chance to get close enough to the Queen to have poisoned her and said no rigorous checks were made into his background.

1995: Student John Gillard rammed the palace gates in his car at 80km/h, tearing one off its hinges.

1994: A naked paraglider landed on the roof of Buckingham Palace. American James Miller was fined 200 pounds and deported.

July 1992: Kevin McMahon, 25, was arrested inside the grounds for the second time in a week. During his first sortie, he forced a helicopter carrying the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to divert as he roamed the grounds.

1982: Michael Fagan, 31, evaded guards to get inside the Queen's private chambers while she was still in bed in 1982. The unemployed father of four, 31, spent around 10 minutes talking to the Queen after he climbed over the palace walls and up a drainpipe. The Queen managed to raise the alarm when Fagan asked for a cigarette, allowing her to call for a footman who held him until police arrived.

Reuters & PA