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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Kaitlin Easton

Iconic moment Queen's daughter Princess Anne snapped back at crazed gunman

When the Queen's only daughter was nearly kidnapped by a crazed gunman, she snapped back in an iconic moment as she refused to get out of the car.

On the evening of March 20, 1974, the Princess Royal, 23 at the time, was travelling back from The Mall to Buckingham Palace after attending a charity event with her then husband Captain Mark Phillips.

Crazed Ian Ball managed to stop the limousine they were travelling it by braking harshly and blocking them with his black Ford Escort before pulling out a handgun. He fired at the window and shot Anne's police bodyguard, Detective Inspector Jim Beaton on the shoulder.

Captain Phillips desperately tried to remove Anne from the firing line by pushing her to the other side of the vehicle as Beaton tried to intervene and stop Ball, but he missed his first shot and his gun jammed.

He was shot a further two times in his attempt to protect the Princess.

The aftermath of Ian Ball's attempt to kidnap Princess Anne (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In an iconic and now famous moment, Anne told Ball ‘Not bloody likely' when he tried to make her get out of the car as part of his kidnapping plot in which he planned to ask for £2 million ransom.

Anne's chauffeur Alex Callender, another policeman Michael Hills and a nearby tabloid journalist Brian McConnell were shot during the horrific incident. Remarkably, they all recovered.

Before anyone else was injured during the carnage, Ball was finally stopped by a passing former boxer Ronnie Russell, who punched him in the back of the head and led Princess Anne to safety. Ball was then tackled to the ground by officer Peter Edmonds.

Crazed gunman Ian Ball (PA archive/PA images)

Ball remains in Broadmoor Hospital, having been diagnosed with schizophrenia following the incident.

He admitted attempted murder and kidnapping and was sent to Broadmoor for 41 years.

In 2002, the Guardian reported he had gone on hunger strike and was referring to himself as a "political prisoner".

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