LONDON, April 7: Officials handling the ceremonial lying in state of Britain’s Queen Mother bowed to growing public demand Sunday and extended the amount of time that people will be able to pay their respects.

As a vast queue snaked up to (6.5 kilometres along the Thames, they announced that her coffin would remain on public view until Tuesday morning, just five hours before her funeral.

The decision came as they estimated that by mid-morning Sunday some 100,000 people had filed through Westminster Hall in tribute.

At lunchtime, police said about 70,000 people were lining the Thames to get into the building, where her coffin is lying in state, with a waiting time of up to eight hours.

The queue stretched westward several hundred metres from the hall, which is part of the parliament complex, then over the Thames river at Lambeth Bridge.

From there, it doubled back along the embankment, past Westminster Bridge, Waterloo railway station and the South Bank arts complex, under Blackfriars Bridge and past the Tate Modern art gallery to Southwark Bridge.

With some 2,500 to 3,000 filing past the coffin each hour, police estimated waiting times at up to eight hours.

Prince Andrew, a grandson of the Queen Mother, spent a few minut well to volunteers.

He appeared suprised at the length of the line.

Police said people were good-natured and the queues were moving faster than on previous days.—Reuters