LONDON (AFP) – King Charles III and his oldest son Prince William were yesterday greeted by cheers as they shook hands with people queueing for hours through London to see Queen Elizabeth’s coffin as it lies in state ahead of her funeral.
Cries of ‘God Save the King’ came from the crowd as the new monarch and heir to the throne thanked members of the public before attention turns to the stream of world leaders arriving for the grand state send-off tomorrow.
“I’m so happy. He was so calm, and friendly and he was so gentle,” said Geraldine Potts-Ahmad, a secretary in her late 50s, as she struggled to contain her emotions after shaking hands with Charles.
“He is going to make the best king. That gentleness and that tenderness, I saw the queen in that.”
The queen’s death on September 8 aged 96, after a record-breaking 70 years on the throne, sparked an outpouring of emotion.
Members of the public are braving waits that have stretched to over 25 hours, and chilly night-time temperatures, to view her flag-shrouded coffin.
Princes William and Harry were later set to lead a vigil of Queen Elizabeth II’s eight grandchildren at her coffin, joining tens of thousands of members of the public who have been queueing round the clock for days.
Lines snaked for miles along the River Thames since Wednesday, when her coffin was brought to the United Kingdom Parliament complex.
Those inside Parliament’s Westminster Hall for the lying-in-state received a shock late on Friday when a man burst out of the line and approached the coffin, which sits topped with the Imperial State Crown.
A live television feed of the mourners briefly cut away around 10pm as police detained the man, two hours after Charles and his three siblings held their own vigil in the cavernous hall.
“He was arrested for an offence under the Public Order Act and is currently in custody,” London’s Metropolitan Police said.
Some 435 people have needed medical treatment, often for head injuries after fainting in the queue, the London Ambulance Service said.
Police are mounting Britain’s biggest-ever security operation for tomorrow’s funeral, as hundreds of dignitaries including United States President Joe Biden are set to jet in.