Twenty-four hour wait to see Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III in Cardiff: the recap of the day
Steph Deschamps / September 17, 2022
Twenty-four hours of waiting to see the Queen, King Charles III given a standing ovation in Cardiff, two policemen injured in London: here is the film of the day on Friday, three days before the funeral of Elizabeth II.
06:00: Two police officers were stabbed in central London and hospitalized as the police prepared for the biggest challenge in their history with the Queen's funeral on Monday. A man with a knife was arrested. Police are not treating the incident as an act of "terrorism". The officers' lives are not in danger.
9:50 a.m. - Access to the queue along the Thames to get to the coffin of Elizabeth II is suspended due to the crowds. The waiting time is then estimated at 14 hoursminimum.
12:25 p.m. - After a religious ceremony at Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff (Wales), King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla enter the Welsh Parliament. The new monarch made a speech, partly in Welsh. Wales "could not be closer to the heart of my mother", he said. This is the last stop of his tour in the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales).
They then went to Cardiff Castle where the new king was cheered by spectators. But a handful of anti-monarchists carried placards with the inscriptions "Abolish the monarchy" or "Democracy now ».
We are all here to say thank you to Her Majesty for her kindness, for being caring and reassuring through the years
3:30 p.m. - The former soccer star David Beckham collects himself, visibly moved, in front of the queen's coffin, after long hours of waiting.
"It's very moving. The silence and the atmosphere in the room is very difficult to explain (...) We are all here to say thank you to Her Majesty for her kindness, for being caring and reassuring through the years," he told AFPTV. "She was our queen and the legacy she left is incredible. »
5:05 p.m. - Access to the queue has reopened, the government says, noting that the wait time to the sovereign's coffin is estimated to be more than 24 hours. "Night temperatures are expected to be cold," the government warns.
5:30 p.m. - Charles III meets at Buckingham Palace with representatives of the UK's major religions.
7:45 p.m. - The four children of Elizabeth II - Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward - watch over their mother's coffin for about ten minutes, as they had already done in Edinburgh (Scotland). All four in military uniforms, their backs to the coffin, they meditate, heads bowed, while the public continues to march in Westminster Hall.