Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral will be the largest security operation ever in London, with leaders from around the world and huge crowds expected in the British capital, even bigger than at the Olympics.
“I can confirm that this will be the biggest event the London Police Force has ever had to lead,” Deputy Commissioner Stuart Cundy told reporters on Friday.
Next Monday’s operation, he added, “is bigger than the 2012 Olympics and bigger than Platinum Jubilee weekend,” celebrating the 70th anniversary of the monarch’s reign, which took place in early June, he added. ready.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the London police force has been reinforced with officers from all 43 police forces in England and Wales.
Soldiers from the various branches of the armed forces, namely the army, air force and navy, and hundreds of workers were also mobilized to provide assistance on the streets.
Plans for the Queen’s eventual death, which took place on September 8, “have been in the pipeline for several years,” he told Sky News.
“This funeral is unprecedented. It is the largest gathering of world leaders in decades and hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people have come to pay their respects,” he said.
The state funeral, the first since Winston Churchill’s death in 1965, will take place at Westminster Abbey at 11 a.m. (same time in Lisbon), before 2,000 guests, including international leaders, personalities and those decorated for community service.
More than 2,000 officers from across the country have been recruited to help Scotland Yard, Stuart Cundy said, and police will install more than 22 miles of barriers in central London, where hundreds of thousands are expected.
“In terms of numbers and possible crowd movements, pushing and crushing people, this is something that is constantly monitored by police commanders,” he said.
In addition to the enormous crowds, the large number of ‘VIP’ [Very Important People – Pessoas Muito Importantes] going to London presents an additional challenge.
“This will be the largest global defense operation London police have ever undertaken,” said Stuart Cundy.
So far, 34 people have been arrested for various offenses, but none for speaking out against the monarchy, Cundy insisted.
“We have made sure that all our officers deployed to London understand that it is clear that people have a right to speak out,” he added.
Elizabeth II died on September 8 at the age of 96 in Balmoral Castle, Scotland, after more than 70 years on the throne, the longest reign in British history, and her body lies in a burning chamber in the British Parliament Building. , in London, see you Monday.
A state funeral will take place in London’s Westminster Abbey on Monday in the presence of dozens of international heads of state and government.
The urn containing the Queen’s body will eventually be deposited, at a private event reserved for the family, in a vault in Windsor Castle where the remains of her parents and sister are, and where the coffin of her husband, Prince Philip, is kept. will be transferred ., who died in 2021 at the age of 99.
Source: DN
