He had jumped over barriers to head for the palace gates during the Changing of the Guard ceremony just before noon.
With hundreds of tourists watching, the man held a foot-long knife to his jugular and prodded a smaller blade into his chest, in what appeared to be a bizarre protest.
He suggested he would harm himself if cops came close, but one officer managed to sneak past to taser him from behind.
Kitchen porter Kevin Burrows, 33, of Surbiton, Surrey, said: “One minute we were waiting for the Changing of the Guard, the next there was this nutter with huge knives.”
"Then the police suddenly surrounded him. They were shouting at everybody to get back. There were police on horses. I saw the shot fired, the police officer was about three metres from him.
"It took a couple of seconds for him to fall to the ground. He was just surrounded by police and carried off in a police van."
Another onlooker at the scene, Grant Shepherd, tweeted: "Crazy man with a knife to his throat just stopped the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace."
The knifeman left behind a black bag, which contained a sheaf of printed notes, cash, a cheap mobile phone, prayer beads and a prayer mat.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said he was arrested and taken to a central London police station.
The Queen and Prince Philip were not at the Palace at the time. They were at their residence in Sandringham, Norfolk.
Last night police charged Talhat Rehman, 54, of Harrow, North West London, with two counts of possessing a bladed weapon in public and one of affray.
He is due to appear before Westminster magistrates today
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