THE UK’S CULTURE Department has launched a live queue tracker for people planning on paying respects to Queen Elizabeth II, who will be lying in state until next Monday.
Queues of people that stretched three-miles-long were seen earlier shortly after 5pm this evening, just after the public were permitted to visit the queen.
Currently, the queue is 2.4 miles long and stretches all the way along the River Thames towards London Bridge.
The queen is currently lying in state in Westminster Hall and will remain in place until Monday 19 September.
The Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is currently streaming the queue tracker live on YouTube.
The queue itself can reach up to 10 miles long and there are strict, airport-style security measures in place, with workers and volunteers currently moving up the queue handing out wristbands allowing them to access the Hall.
Liz Truss’s spokesperson told reporters earlier today that there are “far more” people expected to pay their respects than the 200,000 who filed past the coffin of the queen’s mother when she died in 2002.
Earlier this afternoon, King Charles III led a procession of the coffin of the queen through London to Westminster Hall.
The king and other senior royals walked in silence behind the hearse and then held a vigil upon at the cavernous 12th-century hall in the Westminster parliament complex.
The coffin was draped with a Royal Standard (a flag used by the royal family) and adorned with the Imperial State Crown (one of the UK’s crown jewels).
Additional reporting by Press Association
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