(UTV | LONDON) – After a long and patient wait in the sun and the rain, the first members of the public filed past the casket of Queen Elizabeth II in London on Wednesday as she lay in state in the 925-year-old Westminster Hall.
At the head of the four-kilometre (2.4-mile) queue, well-wishers had camped out for 48 hours in order to pay their respects in front of the flag-shrouded coffin which was brought from Buckingham Palace earlier in the day.
“Inside it was really quite calm and incredibly emotional. A lot of people were in tears, but there was total silence,” 50-year-old accountant Sue Harvey said after emerging from the hall.
“She is everything I have known. I wanted to make sure I did see her, no matter how long the queue was going to be,” she told AFP.
In sombre scenes, many people stopped and bowed or curtsied towards the coffin. Others crossed themselves, or removed their hats.
Some prayed towards the casket or wiped away tears with tissues. Some brought their infants in pushchairs. Old soldiers stopped and gave one last salute to their former commander-in-chief.
To the strains of a military band playing funeral marches, King Charles III led the royal family in procession to Westminster Hall behind a horse-drawn gun carriage bearing the coffin.
The new king, his siblings, and sons Princes William and Harry, walked at 75 steps a minute behind the gun carriage as the Big Ben bell tolled from the Elizabeth Tower at the Houses of Parliament, and guns fired regular salutes from Hyde Park.
The lying-in-state began with a short Anglican service before black-clad members of parliament including new Prime Minister Liz Truss filed past the coffin, which will be on display for five days, around-the-clock.
“Nobody wants to wait, but we kind of feel that we owe something to the queen because she’s been there for the whole of our lives,” said Andrew Clyde, 53, who had travelled specially from Northern Ireland.
“I’m ready to wait the whole night if I need to.