Thousands of people are queueing up to visit the coffin of Queen Elizabeth in London.
Thousands queueing up for 30 hours to visit the coffin of Queen Elizabeth
The monarch died at the age of 96 last Thursday (08.09.22) following a 70-year-reign and more than 2000 mourners have lined up in London for the opportunity to pay their respect, with a wait time of up to 30 hours.
According to The Telegraph, a source party to today’s Cabinet Office briefing has revealed that people waiting in line to see the Queen have gone from 200 to 2000 in two hours.
The queue to view the coffin is currently snaking along the River Thames, having started at 5pm on Tuesday (13.09.22), with mourners being issued wristbands for entry and forbidden from taking pictures or using mobile phones within the building.
Following her "peaceful" passing at her Balmoral estate, Her Late Majesty was driven around the streets of Scotland before being flown back to London accompanied by her daughter Anne, Princess Royal.
For four full days, members of the public will be able to pay respect to the late monarch ahead of the Queen’s state funeral – a bank holiday in the UK –which is due to take place on Monday September 19.
According to TfL commissioner Andy Byford, organsers are expecting that up to three-quarters of a million people will join the queue and "well over" a million people will visit the capital during the mourning period as he labelled the event as the "biggest challenge" the transport network has ever faced.
He said: "The most recent approximation or estimate is that there will be around potentially up to 750,000 people in the queue for lying in state, which is itself a huge number.
But then if you take the whole 10-day mourning period and the various events that happen during that - obviously some happened elsewhere - but even the London element of that, we are talking well north of a million people. So this is huge. This is the biggest event and challenge that TfL has faced in its history, and we must rise to that challenge."
Westminster Hall is set to open for mourners at 3pm on Wednesday, with the Queen's son King Charles set to follow the coffin on foot, joined by her grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry.
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