LONDON — Kate Middleton at her wedding to Prince William on Friday could be under an umbrella after forecasters said it may rain and even thunder on the big day.
Final preparations were under way for the biggest royal wedding for 30 years, British police said they had no specific intelligence about a security threat but they vowed "robust" action against planned Muslim protests.
Scotland Yard said more than 5,000 police, including specialist protection and firearms officers, would be on duty for the ceremony at Westminster Abbey, while military personnel would also line the route.
"In London we operate on a daily basis against a backdrop of a severe threat from international terrorism, and of course we have planned to this threat level for this event," said Commander Christine Jones, one of the officers leading the massive security operation.
But if it does pour on the big day, the crowd will be treated to the sight of the couple leaving Westminster Abbey in a glass coach that William's mother Princess Diana used to travel to her wedding to Prince Charles in 1981.
If the weather is fine then they will use an open-top horse-drawn carriage.
Bad weather is unlikely to deter royal enthusiast John Loughrey, 56, who was the first to arrive at the Abbey late Monday to ensure a front-row spot for the wedding.
Equipped with only a sleeping bag and two carrier bags at the start of his four-day wait, he was dressed in a t-shirt emblazoned with the words "Diana Would Be Proud" with pictures of Kate and William tied round his waist and a Union flag hat.
Driscoll said he would have to disappoint Prince William, a keen rugby fan and a "nice, chatty, normal guy", in order to prepare for Leinster's European Cup clash with French side Toulouse on Saturday.
"I have a captain's run on Friday and as big an honour as it was to be invited, I can't ask for team runs to be at half-six in the evening so I can go to the wedding," O'Driscoll told the Guardian newspaper.
"The team ethos comes first, even after 12 years.
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