Tens of thousands of mourners are in Edinburgh to pay their respects to the Queen, with reports today of 'ten deep' overnight queues and the numbers swelling to hundreds of thousands.
The public were warned to expect a 12-hour wait to see the late monarch's coffin as Her Majesty lies at rest at St Giles' Cathedral in the Scottish capital, but people who queued overnight said today their wait-time was five or six hours. Lord Ian Duncan, the Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords, said crowds along the Royal Mile were 'ten-deep', with streets surrounding the historic precinct equally crammed with people.
"The sheer quantity of individuals moving into Edinburgh today indicates that there will be many tens – possibly even hundreds – of thousands of people who will wish to pay their respects to the late Queen," Lord Duncan told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National programme on Tuesday morning.
"That is an extraordinary outpouring of respect, grief, celebration of an extraordinary woman. By goodness, they were ten-deep. They had to stop people trying to get there because it would have become dangerous.
“The streets around (the Royal Mile) were crammed and now, as people wait to walk past the coffin itself, the expectation of the numbers and the sheer quantity of humanity in Edinburgh today is extraordinary."
The line from the cathedral doors is said to stretch back for at least a mile. A lone piper stood on a bench was spotted in The Meadows park as waiting queues of people slowly filed past to get to the cathedral.
The Queen's coffin will continue to lie at rest at St Giles' today before being moved to Edinburgh Airport at 5pm - with more mourners expected to line the route.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, head of the Royal Air Force, said that the Queen's coffin would have a royal guard of honour when it is loaded on to the aircraft - a C-17 Globemaster - made of 96 gunners from the RAF regiment, the Queen's Colour Squadron.
It is expected to arrive in London at 7pm via RAF Northolt and will be received by another guard of honour, 'again, the Queen's Colour Squadron, this time with the with the King's colours on display as well' before being put into a hearse and taken to Buckingham Palace, he added. Her Majesty will then lie at rest in the Bow Room inside the palace.
Gavin Hamilton, from Edinburgh, said he was informed upon arrival it would likely be 13 hours before he would have the chance to pay respects to the Queen, but it soon became apparent the wait would only be five or six hours.
"It took about five and a quarter hours waiting in line to see her,” he said, adding that he made into the cathedral just before 3am.
"There were people in the queue with me who had travelled from Aberdeen, over 100 miles away, to do this. There were thousands of people in line at 12.30am at the start of the queue. The people were still (lining up) after 2.50 am when I got into the cathedral."
Fellow mourner Mitch Stevenson, who queued for just under five hours with his sister, said they were “overwhelmed with the power and emotion of the occasion” after making it into St Giles’ cathedral just after 1am.
The siblings had initially been advised they would likely need to wait 11 hours to see the Queen’s coffin but were not deterred.
“It was a very important occasion for us – we lost our mum earlier this year and she would have loved to have been able to go, so we went for her memory also,” Mr Stevenson said.
“We were told (we would need to wait) about 11 hours. We accepted this but later found out it was not the case,” he added. “Some people, including myself, felt it was perhaps a little bit of scaremongering to get the crowd numbers down a bit.”
Members of the public started going into the cathedral at about 6pm on Monday.
Shortly after 6am on Tuesday the Scottish Government said the approximate waiting time was roughly two hours but added that that is expected to lengthen during the morning. It advised people wishing to join the queue to go prepared and dressed for the weather.
The Queen's state funeral will take place next Monday, September 19, at Westminster Abbey following four days of her lying in state in Westminster Hall. Mourners have been warned they face waiting up to 30 hours to pay their final respects to the late monarch.
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