Police finalize security plan for ex-King’s funeral

A reported 1,000 police will be deployed for the funeral service and burial of former King Constantine Monday, according to Greek media.

Police would not confirm the number but announced that the number was finalized at a meeting of top security officials Saturday, adding that police “will have a presence at vital points [around] the metropolitan cathedral and (the royals’ former summer residence of) Tatoi, as well as the funeral procession’s route and the locations where invited officials stay.”

Constantine, the former and last king of Greece, will be buried as a private citizen in Tatoi, about 29 kilometers (18 miles) north of Athens, next to where his parents and ancestors are buried, the government announced Wednesday.

Constantine died in a hospital late Tuesday at the age of 82. Greece’s monarchy was definitively abolished in a referendum in December 1974 and Constantine spent decades in exile before settling in his home country once more in his waning years.

His body will lie in state Monday morning, from 6-10 a.m., at a chapel next to the metropolitan cathedral. The funeral service will take place at noon.

Of the about 200 invitees to the funeral service, the number being limited by the number of available seats at the cathedral given distancing requirements, only about 60 will attend the burial in Tatoi. All will attend a memorial dinner at a central Athens hotel later Monday.

Working crews have been busy clearing the burial site of debris and paving the road to the graves with gravel.

[AP]