“I hope the guard is ok. You can hurt yourself when you pass out,” one person tweeted. “Horrible incident just happened on Her Majesty at Rest live, with a guard appearing to pass out and fall straight forward and hit his head… I hope he’s ok as it looked like a very painful fall,” another person said. Queen Elizabeth II’s lie-in-state opened to the public at 5pm on Wednesday, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to register to pay their respects by September 19, the day of the funeral. Westminster Hall is open 24 hours a day until Monday morning, with guards holding their posts for hours at a time. The Queen’s coffin is raised on a catafalque and every corner is guarded around the clock by a vigil of units from the Sovereign’s Bodyguard, Household Department or Yeoman Warders of the Tower of London. Officials expect up to 750,000 people to view the late Queen’s coffin before the state funeral ends at 6.30am on Monday.
