Visitor to lying in state says niece queued for 15 hours and they are trying to get back in
A witness has said her seven-year-old niece was pushed aside by a man who grabbed the Queen’s coffin as it lay in state.
Tracey Holland said Darcy Holland was “grabbed out of the way”, though the police detained the man “in two seconds”.
Holland spoke to Sky News outside Westminster Hall in central London while standing with her niece, who was visibly upset and clutching a pink toy.
Her aunt said: “Here is the little seven-year-old that was stood paying her respects to the Queen, trying to look at the crown, when some person decided they were going to push her out the way, run up to the coffin, lift up the standards [sic] and try to do I don’t know what,” Holland said.
Asked whether the girl was all right, the woman said: “No, not at all. We are just trying to get her back in again, so that she can go round again, respectfully. Because she has been up since two o’clock this morning. She has been in a queue for 15 hours and that is his result.”
She added: “[It was] terrible, absolutely terrible, so disrespectful and unbelievable – and this poor little seven-year-old child, this is her lasting memory of the Queen.”
The disturbance is believed to have happened just before 10pm, when many mourners would have been queueing for more than 12 hours. Broadcasters showing the procession of mourners cut away from the scene and instead showed the view from outside the Palace of Westminster.
A statement from Scotland Yard said: “Parliamentary and diplomatic protection command detained a man in Westminster Hall following a disturbance.” It added the man was “arrested for an offence under the Public Order Act and is currently in custody”.
