Royal Scare

Six blanks fired at Elizabeth

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II made an easy target: dressed in a scarlet uniform, mounted on her charger Burmese and followed by her husband Prince Philip and her son Prince Charles, the Queen, 55, was leading 1,000 troops of her Guards division down London's Mall. The royal family was bound for the huge open ground of the Horse Guards Parade for the annual ceremony of the Trooping the Color in honor of the monarch's official birthday. Suddenly, as millions of television viewers looked on, six shots rang out. The Queen's horse reared. She looked pale and shaken as she fought to control him, turning back to see whether Prince Philip and Prince Charles were all right. But none of the shots found a mark--all were blanks. The Queen, quickly recovering her poise, continued on her way, smiling at the crowds and at Prince Philip, who spurred his horse forward to ride beside her. The ceremony went on.

Police quickly grabbed Marcus Simon Sarjeant, 17, an unemployed youth from a small town near Dover, and charged him with "wilfully discharging at the Queen blank cartridges with intent to alarm her." Despite fears that the shooting was some kind of warning from the Irish Republican Army, the action may merely have been a protest against the lack of jobs for young Britons. An official spokesman acknowledged that there would probably be a "re-examination of security" for next month's royal wedding, which might take some of the festivity out of the occasion.

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