A plot to kill Queen Elizabeth was foiled when police arrested four Islamic terror suspects who aimed to stab the 88-year-old monarch to death.
Four suspects were arrested on Thursday, one day before they planned to set the plot to kill Queen Elizabeth into motion. Investigators say the suspects planned to stab the Queen during a military event at Royal Albert Hall, part of a lead up to Remembrance Sunday.
The suspects were between 19 and 27 years old, police say. The men were arrested in separate raids in West London and Buckinghamshire.
It was not immediately clear of the Islamist suspects arrested in the plot to kill Queen Elizabeth had any connection to ISIS, which has called on members abroad to kill the “enemy.”
In August, the Roman newspaper Il Tempo published a report claiming that Pope Francis “in the crosshairs” of ISIS for “bearing false witness” against Islam. The report claimed that ISIS wanted to raise tension with Europe by assassinating a beloved and powerful figure, and had their eyes on killing the Pope.
But the Vatican did not appear to worried by the alleged threats.
“There is nothing serious to this,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told Catholic News Agency. “There is no particular concern in the Vatican.”A number of ISIS fighters have come from the U.K., and some have expressed worry that those who left to fight in Iraq and Syria may be able to sneak back into the country.
As the New York Post noted, this is not the first attempt on Queen Elizabeth’s life. While she and husband Philip were on a royal tour of Australia in 1970, their train hit a log placed on the track in hopes of making it derail and taking the royal monarch’s life.
The royal monarch was apparently unfazed by the latest threat. Officials said the plot to kill Queen Elizabeth was made known to both the Queen and Prime Minister David Cameraon, but her Royal Highness refused to alter plans to attend this weekend’s events.
