Sarajevo-type attack fear at royal wedding
LEAVE SWORDS AT HOME, GUESTS ARE TOLD
LEAVE swords at home and bring a hat are among a strict set of do and don’ts for guests at the royal wedding.
Seven pages of “critical guidance” leave nothing to chance and include orders to bring passports but not medals and gifts.
The day is planned with military precision and guests are even warned to make the most of the “very limited toilet facilities” between 9am and 11am before they are closed for the duration of the service.
Women should wear a “day dress with hat” while a “morning coat or lounge suit” is recommended for men.
Members of the Armed Forces are permitted to wear military uniforms but the code specifies that no swords or medals and the royal protection squad gathered for a run-through at the elite regiment’s headquarters.
A section of Credenhill barracks was transformed into a mock version of Windsor High Street.
Police anti-terror operations have been heightened in recent weeks in the run-up to the wedding.
Last Thursday, officers arrested a 20-year-old man in Coventry on suspicion of plotting a terror attack, indicating the heightened state of readiness ahead of the wedding. More than 3,000 can be worn, perhaps to avoid a repeat of football star David Beckham’s faux pas at Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding when he arrived at Westminster Abbey wearing his OBE medal on the wrong side.
Well-wishers are also asked not to bring any presents or hand luggage except handbags and “rainwear”. The guidance adds: “Gifts cannot be brought to St George’s Chapel or the reception at Windsor Castle.”
Cameras and mobiles are banned. Guests are also advised to avoid public transport and any contact with the public whose large numbers could “seriously inhibit movement”. officers from Scotland Yard, Thames Valley Police and other forces will be on duty on the wedding day, Saturday, May 19 – 2.5 per cent of all officers in England and Wales, or one in 40.
All leave for the local Thames Valley force has been cancelled.
Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding in London in 2011 was easier to manage because the public sections of the ceremony were in the Mall, a wide stretch of road by Buckingham Palace with no tall buildings looming over the route.