The authorities in Britain were struggling last night to keep up with the extraordinary and unprecedented emotion surrounding the death of Princess Diana.
As huge grief-stricken crowds of people assembled, roads around Buckingham Palace were unexpectedly closed to traffic. The roads, including the Mall, the ceremonial avenue between Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square, and Constitution Hill, were cleared of traffic until the day after the funeral of Princess Diana.
The crowds - including thousands queueing for up to six hours to commit their thoughts to books of condolences - overflowed the wide pavements. "The decision to close was made because of the scale of the crowds," a police spokesman said.
The marathon queues are set to continue non-stop, with a door in St James's Palace remaining open 24 hours a day, until midnight on Friday, to allow people sign five books of condolences.
Princess Diana's funeral will take place at 11 a.m. on Saturday in Westminster Abbey with a private burial afterwards in the grounds of her family's estate in Northamptonshire. It will be watched on TV by millions around the world and, in London, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to line the streets.
A suggestion yesterday by an MP, Mr Michael Fabricant, that the nation observe two minutes of silence at 2 p.m. on Saturday had snowballed by nightfall when it became clear that scores of stores, theatres, cinemas, banks and radio stations would observe the call. Major sports events have been cancelled.
The funeral will be a national commemoration for a person described by the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, as the People's Princess.
Mr Blair intervened in the funeral arrangements to ensure that the occasion would be tilted in favour of the people as a whole, rather than dignitaries.
Last night, an ever-growing carpet of flowers was spreading out in front of Buckingham Palace. People expressed their profound feelings simply. Margaret Holman, aged 67, from Islington in north London, waited for five hours to pay her tribute.
"I was waiting for five hours, but knowing Diana she would have thanked me," she said.