Watch the live queue tracker for Queen’s lying in state

Visitors face airport-style security and police may search public

The government has launched a queue tracker to tell people planning to go into Westminster Hall for the Queen’s lying-in-state how far the line stretches.

Thousands of people have descended on London for the chance to see the coffin before Monday’s funeral, prompting warnings the queue could stretch up to 10 miles and people may have to wait for more than two full days.

At 7.30pm on Thursday, the tracker, created by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, suggested the queue was nearly five miles long. It estimated that the total queuing time was more than 8.5 hours.

Official guidance warns people they will need to stand for many hours, possibly overnight, with very little opportunity to sit down as the queue will be continuously moving.

Visitors will go through airport-style security and only small bags are allowed, although there is a bag-drop facility.

People joining the back of the queue are given a coloured and numbered wristband that allows them to leave the line briefly to use a lavatory or get food and drink.

Public toilets, drinking water and first aid stations are available at designated locations along the queue route.

Route of the queue that has so far stretched three miles along the Thames (DCMS)

Police may conduct security searches along parts of the queue.

Visitors are asked to dress appropriately, be silent in Westminster Hall, turn off their phones and use bins for litter.

Entry to the line will be suspended if the queuing infrastructure - stretching 6.9 miles from Victoria Tower Gardens to Southwark Park, with a further three miles in the park itself - reaches capacity.

There is a separate accessible route running from Tate Britain for people less able to wait for a long period of time, with timed entry slots issued for a line along Millbank to the Palace of Westminster.

Members of the public file past the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, inside Westminster Hall, (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

No proof of disability will be required to use this route, with marshals on hand to make sure people are in the correct line and two British Sign Language interpreters to help.

Metropolitan Police officers, volunteers and stewards are managing the queue while toilets and water fountains are provided at various points along the route.

Thousands of mourners queued overnight on Wednesday to pay their respects to the Queen, filing past her coffin once they reached Westminster Hall.

By 10am on Thursday, the queue was around three miles long and stretched past London Bridge to HMS Belfast. It now stretches all the way to Southwark Park.

The Queen’s lying-in-state will finish early on Monday morning, ahead of her state funeral at Westminster Abbey.

Officials believe that as many as 750,000 people could see her coffin in Westminster Hall before Monday morning.