More than 250,000 people queued for Queen Elizabeth II’s lying-in-state, Michelle Donelan says

Around a quarter of a million people paid their respects to Queen Elizabeth II by filing past her coffin as it lay in state in London.

Michelle Donelan, the culture secretary, gave the figure on Tuesday morning, less than 24 hours after the nation’s longest-reigning monarch was buried at Windsor Castle.

“We think it’s approximately 250 [thousand] or just a bit north of that,” Ms Donelan said, adding she will confirm the number of visitors in due course.

“It was quintessentially British, wasn’t it, to see that queue?”

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