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Buckingham Palace’s East Wing opens for tours for the first time, and tickets sell out in a day
London — The room that opens onto Buckingham Palace’s famous balcony, from which the royal family can be seen waving to the public below during major events, is opening to the public for tours for the first time this summer after a renovation.
Tour tickets, however, are no longer available. A limited number of “East Wing Highlights” summer tours that were offered this year sold out in one day. Standard adult tickets were priced at about $90 each, and they had to be purchased on top of the standard Buckingham Palace tour ticket, which costs about $50.
Visitors to the Centre Room, which leads out to the famous balcony, in the palace’s long closed-off East Wing will be able to see historic artifacts including 18th century imperial Silk wall hangings gifted by Emperor Guangxu of China to Queen Victoria to mark her Diamond Jubilee in 1897.
”This room was part of the edition of the East Wing, made by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It was Prince Albert who actually suggested the balcony,” said Nicola Turner Inman, curator of decorative arts at Royal Collection Trust. “It was first used in 1851 for the waving off the troops for the Crimean War.”
The Royal Collection noted that Prince Albert suggested the balcony be placed on the front of the palace as a way for the royals to be “visible and connect with the public.”
People who join the tour will also walk past famous paintings as they make their way through the Principal Corridor, which leads to the Centre Room, and will see the recently restored 18th century Chinese hand-painted wallpaper in the Yellow Drawing Room.
”It’s one of our charitable aims to make the collection more widely and publicly accessible. But it’s also the wish of His Majesty the King, who is very much wanting to open up the Royal residences,” Inman said.
The East Wing is still used by the royal family for events and official meetings.
Inman said renovations of the East Wing were part of a wider “reservicing project,” a 10-year upgrade of the London palace’s services and amenities.
“At the start of the work in the East Wing in 2018, over 3,500 works of art and other objects were removed to enable the work to take place,” the Trust said.
It wasn’t immediately clear when, or if, future dates for the East Wing tour would be made available. The Royal Collection Trust said it would first review the trial period.
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911 calls released in deadly Georgia school shooting
A Georgia county’s emergency call center was overwhelmed by calls on Sept. 4 about a school shooting at Apalachee High School that killed four people and wounded nine others, records released Friday by Barrow County show.
Local news organizations report many of the 911 phone calls were not released under public record requests because state law exempts from release calls recording the voice of someone younger than 18 years old. That exemption would cover calls from most of the 1,900 students at the school in Winder, northeast of Atlanta.
Calls spiked around 10:20 a.m., when authorities have said that 14-year-old suspect Colt Gray began shooting. Many calls were answered with an automated message saying there was a “high call volume,” WAGA-TV reported.
One man called 911 after receiving text messages from a girlfriend. He was put on hold for just over 10 minutes because of an influx of calls at the time of the shooting, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“She hears people yelling outside, so I don’t know if that’s officers in the building or that’s — I don’t know,” he said, adding that she was eventually evacuated out of the school.
Other adults also called 911 after their children contacted them.
“My daughter calling me crying. Somebody go ‘boom, boom, boom, boom,'” one mother said. The 911 operator responded: “Ma’am we have officers out there, OK?”
Parents of students at an elementary school and middle school neighboring Apalachee also flooded 911 seeking information.
“Sir, my daughter goes to school next door to Apalachee. Is there a school shooter?” one caller asked.
“We do have an active situation (at) Apalachee High School right now,” the operator responded. “We have a lot of calls coming in.”
More than 500 radio messages between emergency personnel were also released Friday.
“Active shooter!” an officer yells in one audio clip while speaking with a dispatcher, CNN reported. Another officer responds, “Correct. We have an active shooter at Apalachee High School.”
The shooting killed teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, as well as students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, with seven of those hit by gunfire.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported Thursday that the suspect rode the school bus on the day of the shooting with the assault-style rifle concealed in his backpack.
He then asked a teacher for permission to go to the front office to speak with someone, and when he received it, he was allowed to take his backpack with him, GBI said. He then went to a restroom, where he hid, and then eventually took out the weapon and started shooting, investigators said. A knife was also found on him when he was arrested.
According to investigators, the suspect enrolled at Apalachee High on Aug. 14, and between Aug. 14 and the day of the shooting, he was absent for nine days of school.
The family told CBS News that the suspect’s maternal grandmother had visited the school the day before the massacre to discuss the suspect’s alleged behavioral issues.
The suspect has been charged as an adult with four counts of murder, and District Attorney Brad Smith has said more charges are likely to be filed against him in connection with the wounded. Authorities have also charged his father, 54-year-old Colin Gray, alleging that he gave his son access to the gun when he knew or should have known that the teen was a danger to himself and others.
The 13,000 students at Barrow County’s other schools returned to class Tuesday. The 1,900 students who attend Apalachee are supposed to start returning the week of Sept. 23, officials said Friday.
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