Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral on Monday will pose the biggest security operation London has ever seen.
With over 70 heads of government from around the world on the guest list alongside members of the Royal family, over 10,000 uniformed police officers will be stationed across the city.
Officials from the British domestic and foreign intelligence agencies, MI5 and MI6, are also reviewing terrorist threats as part of the massive security operation.
Mayor Sadiq Khan said the Queen’s state funeral today is an “unprecedented” security challenge.
“It’s been decades since this many world leaders were in one place. This is unprecedented … in relation to the various things that we’re juggling,” he told the Associated Press.
“There could be bad people wanting to cause damage to individuals or to some of our world leaders.”
“So we are working incredibly hard — the police, the security services and many, many others — to make sure this state funeral is as successful as it can be.”
The security operation is being run from a high-tech control centre near Lambeth Bridge.
Over the past few days, police with bomb-sniffing dogs have been patrolling key areas, and on Monday snipers will be stationed on rooftops lining the procession route and around Westminster Abbey.
Flying drones over central London has been temporarily banned, and Heathrow Airport is grounding a number of flights to avoid any noise pollution during the funeral service.
Almost all heads of government attending were transported in buses to the funeral at Westminster Abbey.
However, an exception was made for U.S. President Joe Biden, who arrived in his armoured limousine, known as The Beast.
Overall, the cost of the security for the Queen’s state funeral is estimated to be around £6.5million.
