World leaders head to London for Queen Elizabeth II funeral

LONDON — Hundreds of police, lots of of troops and a military of officers made last preparations Sunday for the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II – a spectacular show of nationwide mourning that may also be the most important gathering of world leaders for years.

U.S. President Joe Biden and different dignitaries are arriving in London for the funeral, to which round 500 royals, heads of state and heads of presidency from across the globe have been invited.

Hundreds of individuals continued to line up across the clock to file previous the queen’s coffin because it lies in state at Parliament’s Westminster Corridor, braving chilly in a single day temperatures and waits of as much as 17 hours. The queen’s eight grandchildren, led by inheritor to the throne Prince William, circled the coffin and stood with heads bowed throughout a silent vigil on Saturday night.

The miles-long queue is predicted to be closed to new arrivals later Sunday so that everybody in line can file previous the coffin earlier than Monday morning, when it will likely be borne on a gun carriage to Westminster Abbey for the queen’s funeral.

Folks throughout the U.Ok. are because of pause Sunday night for a nationwide minute of silence to recollect the queen, who died Sept. 8 on the age of 96 after 70 years on the throne. Monday has been declared a public vacation, and the funeral can be broadcast to an enormous tv viewers and screened to crowds in parks and public areas throughout the nation.

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Hundreds of cops from across the nation can be on responsibility as a part of the most important one-day policing operation in London’s historical past.

Camilla, the brand new queen consort, paid tribute to the queen in a video message, saying the monarch “carved her personal function” as a “solitary girl” on a world stage dominated by males.

“I’ll at all times bear in mind her smile. That smile is unforgettable,” mentioned Camilla, who’s married to King Charles III.

A tide of individuals continued to stream into Parliament’s Westminster Corridor, the place the queen’s coffin is mendacity in state, draped in her Royal Commonplace and capped with a diamond-studded crown. The variety of mourners has grown steadily because the public was first admitted on Wednesday, with a queue that stretches for not less than 5 miles (eight kilometers) alongside the River Thames and into Southwark Park within the metropolis’s southeast.

Honoring their persistence, Charles and William made an unannounced go to Saturday to greet folks within the line, shaking fingers and thanking mourners within the queue close to Lambeth Bridge.

Later, all of the queen’s grandchildren stood by her coffin. William and Prince Harry, Charles’ sons, had been joined by Princess Anne’s youngsters, Zara Tindall and Peter Philips; Prince Andrew’s daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie; and the 2 youngsters of Prince Edward – Woman Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn.

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William stood along with his head bowed on the head of the coffin and Harry on the foot. Each princes, who’re army veterans, had been in uniform. Mourners continued to file previous in silence.

“You might see that they had been considering arduous about their grandmother, the queen,” mentioned Ian Mockett, a civil engineer from Oxford in southern England. “It was good to see all of them collectively as a set of grandchildren given the issues which have occurred over the previous couple of years.”

Harry, who served in Afghanistan as a British military officer, wore civilian garments earlier within the week because the queen’s coffin left Buckingham Palace as a result of he’s not a working member of the royal household. He and his spouse Meghan stop royal duties and moved to the USA in 2020. The king, nonetheless, requested that each William and Harry put on their army uniforms on the Westminster Corridor vigil.

Earlier than the vigil, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie issued a press release praising their “beloved grannie.”

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“We, like many, thought you would be right here eternally. And all of us miss you terribly. You had been our matriarch, our information, our loving hand on our backs main us by this world. You taught us a lot and we are going to cherish these classes and reminiscences eternally,” the sisters wrote.

The queen’s 4 youngsters – Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward – held the same vigil across the coffin on Friday.

The silence within the corridor was briefly damaged Friday when a person lunged on the coffin. London police mentioned Sunday {that a} 28-year-old London man, Muhammad Khan, has been charged with habits supposed to “trigger alarm, harassment or misery.” He’ll seem in court docket on Monday.

The lying-in-state continues till early Monday morning, when the queen’s coffin can be moved to close by Westminster Abbey for the funeral, the finale of 10 days of nationwide mourning for Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.

After the service Monday on the abbey, the late queen’s coffin can be transported by the historic coronary heart of London on a horse-drawn gun carriage. It would then be taken in a hearse to Windsor, the place the queen can be interred alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died final 12 months.