Scotland Yard said the 47-year-old was detained by officers on a warrant issued by Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 29 June 2012, for failing to surrender to the court. Assange has been taken into custody at a central London police station where he will nr held before appearing before Westminster Magistrates’ Court. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “The MPS had a duty to execute the warrant, on behalf of Westminster Magistrates’ Court, and was invited into the embassy by the ambassador, following the Ecuadorian government’s withdrawal of asylum.”

Witnesses said Assange was dragged “screaming” from the Ecuadorian embassy and footage showed him surrounded by officers as he was led into a waiting police van.

One onlooker said: “He was screaming. He was struggling, I think he felt a bit weak. He was surrounded by police.”

Officers remained stationed outside the building after the arrest, including one van with several officers sat inside.

Demonstrators carrying banners which said “Free Julian” also arrived after Scotland Yard said it had arrested Assange.

Scotland Yard sources said police were invited into the embassy and made the arrest shortly after 10am.

The source said: “It was a planned operation.”

Home Secretary Sajid Javid tweeted: “Nearly seven years after entering the Ecuadorean Embassy, I can confirm Julian Assange is now in police custody and rightly facing justice in the UK.

“I would like to thank Ecuador for its cooperation & @metpoliceuk for its professionalism. No one is above the law.”

Ecuador’s president Lenin Moreno said: “Ecuador is a generous country and a nation with open arms.

“Ours is a government respectful of the principles of international law, and of the institution of the right of asylum.

“Getting or withdrawing asylum is a sovereign right of the Ecuadorian state, according to international law.

“Today, I announce that the discourteous and aggressive behaviour of Mr Julian Assange, the hostile and threatening declarations of its allied organisation, against Ecuador, and especially the transgression of international treaties, have led the situation to a point where the asylum of Mr Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable.”

Mr Moreno said Ecuador’s patience of Ecuador had finally reached its limits with Mr Assange’s behaviour.

He said: “He installed electronic and distortion equipment not allowed. He blocked the security cameras of the Ecuadorian Mission in London.

“He has confronted and mistreated guard. He had accessed security files of our Embassy without permission.

“He claimed to be isolated and rejected the internet connection offered by the embassy and yet he had a mobile phone with which he communicated with the outside world.

“While Ecuador upheld the generous conditions of his asylum, Mr Assange legally challenged in three difference instances the legality of the protocol.”

But WikiLeaks said he had acted illegally in terminating Assange’s political asylum “in violation of international law”.

The group tweeted: “URGENT: Ecuador has illegally terminated political asylum in violation of international law. He was arrested by the British police inside the Ecuadorian embassy minutes ago.”

His arrest comes a day after Wikileaks accused the Ecuadorean Government of an “extensive spying operation” against Assange.

WikiLeaks claims meetings with lawyers and a doctor inside the embassy over the past year were secretly filmed.

Assange had refused to leave the embassy, claiming he would be extradited to the United States for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks if he did so.

Former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, who was in power when Assange was granted asylum, described his successor as a traitor.

Mr Correa tweeted: “Lenin Moreno, disastrous President of Ecuador, has shown his human misery to the world, handing Julian Assange – not only in asylum, but also an Ecuadorian citizen – to the British police.

“This puts Assange’s life at risk and humiliates Ecuador.

“The greatest traitor in Ecuadorian and Latin American history, Lenin Moreno, allowed the British police to enter our embassy in London to arrest Assange.

“Moreno is a corrupt man but what he has done now is a crime that humanity will never forget.”

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