A witness told MailOnline two middle-aged men who had been 'loitering around' the property on Kensington Palace Gardens approached it at around 1.40 pm before one threw an object over the gate, setting alight to several bushes.
A security guard then rushed out to confront the men and was punched in the face and left with an injured eye. Police rushed to the scene and were seen handcuffing two men before loading them into a van.
One fire engine arrived and put out the blaze after 10 minutes.
The Met said one man was arrested for arson and a second for assault. A third man who was standing nearby was found to be in possession of Class A drugs and arrested. It is not clear if he was involved in the attack on the building.
No one was seriously injured and police have ruled out terror. It is unclear if the ambassador, Khalid bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, was in the house at the time.
The Saudi embassy in London has seen numerous protests by anti-war activists as well as protesters over the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in recent years.
Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi was a Saudi Arabian journalist, dissident, author, columnist for The Washington Post, and a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government, allegedly at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
ZZ/PR
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