Police were called to Salisbury Cathedral on Thursday after a man allegedly tried to break into a case displaying a copy of the Magna Carta. 

A man has been arrested in connection with the incident and the historical document, valued at £20m, has been temporarily withdrawn from display. 

According to the BBC, the suspect tried to smash through the display case with a hammer before being wrestled to the ground by cathedral staff.

While the attempted robbery left three holes in the display case, the cathedral said in a statement that the document itself had not been damaged and no one was hurt in the incident.

According to the statement, police arrived on the scene shortly afterwards and the suspect was taken into custody. 

'We are very grateful to all who dealt with the situation so swiftly and effectively.  We are very sorry that for the time being our copy of Magna Carta will not be available to visitors and will have it back on display as soon as we can,' the statement read. 

'We would like to thank everyone for all their messages of support and concern.' 

The Very Reverend Nick Papadopoulos told the BBC: 'There were people around so the cry went up, it was pretty thick glass so it hadn't yielded easily despite having a hammer hit it.

'It was a great shock but everyone responded magnificently, both our staff and volunteers and members of the public. They raised a cry and he did not get away.'

Salisbury Cathedral is home to one of only four know copies of the Magna Carta, a legal charter adopted by King John in 1215 to set down the governing principles for justice, rights and power in England.

In an update to Twitter, the cathedral said that the Chapter House, which houses the Magna Carta, would be open as usual on Saturday although a facsimile of the document would be on display instead of the original.

'The original will return to its permanent position as soon as its case has been repaired,' the cathedral said.