King Charles visits control centre that will monitor historic state funeral for the Queen on Monday

KING Charles III met police and emergency services who are ensuring tomorrow's historic funeral goes to plan safely.

He paid an historic visit to the Met Police's Command and Control Centre in Lambeth yesterday to thank a host of emergency workers for their efforts and support. The new Met Commissioner Mark Rowley, Deputy Commissioner Lynne Owens and the Lord Lieutenant of London Sir Ken Olisa greeted the party on their arrival earlier today, Saturday 17 September, where they were also joined by Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Mayor Sadiq Khan.

The control centre provides command and control facilities for pre-planned policing operations and extended major incidents and manages around 2,000 events a year, from elite sports occasions to demonstrations and ceremonial events such as Trooping The Colour.

Prince William joined father at the close of the visit.

Sir Mark said: “It was a privilege to introduce His Majesty King Charles to some of the teams working hard behind the scenes to deliver this monumental policing operation, which will culminate in us deploying the greatest number of officers in the Met’s history for a pre-planned event on Monday. It gave officers and staff a real boost.

“Our priority continues to be ensuring people are able to safely pay their respects to Her Majesty the Queen, while still delivering core local policing and emergency response across the capital. This huge operation has required the support of almost every team within the Met and large numbers of officers joining us from across the country, as well as close working with our partners. Every individual involved has demonstrated great diligence and the utmost professionalism."