People should no longer join the crowds heading to St Giles’ Cathedral, the Scottish government says.
Image source, ReutersPeople who wish to see the Queen’s coffin in Edinburgh have been urged to join the queue soon if they wish to pay their final respects.
Mourners had begun filing into St Giles’ Cathedral on Monday evening to be part of a historic moment.
Thousands waited through the night and the line to the city’s Meadows, south of the cathedral where the coffin is lying at rest.
People will be able to walk past the Queen’s coffin until 15:00 on Tuesday.
At 06:00 on Tuesday the Scottish government confirmed the wait time was roughly two hours and urged those joining the queue to come prepared and dressed for the weather.
But the waiting time is expected to lengthen as the morning progresses.
City of Edinburgh Council leader Cammy Day told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “We expect probably today tens of thousands of people to make their way through the city and through St Giles’ so we would just encourage anybody who wants to take the historic opportunity to make that journey as soon as possible.”
Mr Day was unable to estimate how many people have paid their respects so far as the council was awaiting final figures.
And he told the programme at one point on Monday evening the waiting time was in excess of 10 hours.
