Man with knife arrested in front of U.K. Parliament

London police said a man with a knife was arrested Friday in front of the British Parliament.

The scene appeared calm from images broadcast on U.K. news networks, with armed officers taking the man in his 30s into custody and searching him. 

London's Metropolitan police said officers on patrol near Parliament, "became aware of a man acting suspiciously. The officers approached the man in order to speak with him. The man reached for a knife, and police discharged a Taser."

Traffic continued to pass on the road leading from Parliament over Westminster Bridge, crossing the Thames, during the brief incident.

It was on that bridge earlier this year that a terror attack began that saw a man with a knife first drove an SUV into pedestrians on the bridge and then fatally stabbed a police officer inside the Parliament compound.

In statement released later Friday, the police said it was still "too early to understand the motivation" of the man who was arrested, "so we have not declared this a terrorist incident." 

However, "given the location, the circumstances and recent tragic events," the Counter Terrorism Command of London's police department was tasked with investigating the incident.

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