Joe Biden greets mourners as ‘The Beast’ gets stuck in traffic en route to the Queen’s funeral

The US President was one of a select few foreign leaders granted permission to use their own ground transportation to and from state the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II

US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden got held up in traffic outside a Pret-a-Manger on their way to attend Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral at Westminster Abbey on 19 September (Tiktok/video screengrab)

US President Joe Biden’s armoured limousine got stuck in traffic while heading to Westminster Abbey to attend Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.

Unexpecting mourners were greeted to waves from him and First Lady Jill Biden outside a Pret-a-Manger as his specifically bespoke state car The Beast was stranded.

In the clips shared online, crowds of onlookers who had piled into the streets to commemorate the monarch can be seen waving at the president and his wife as police zip ahead on motorbikes in an attempt to clear the gridlocked traffic for the hulking limousine.

Unlike most foreign leaders, the US president was granted special permission by the British government to utilise his own mode of transportation for the state funeral.

State leaders and their partners who were not given the luxury of using their own mode of transportation for the 19 September funeral were asked to arrive in the UK on commercial flights and have been banned from using helicopters to move around the capital.

There was a bus that would be made available for most dignitaries, that would be departing from a site in west London and arriving at Westminster Abbey en masse, Politico reported.

The state funeral saw around 500 dignitaries from around the world descend on London to pay their last respects to the long-reigning monarch.

Though nearly all heads of state from across the globe received an invite to the funeral there were six countries who were notably excluded.

Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Russia, Belarus, and Myanmar did not have leaders representing them at the state funeral while North Korea, Nicaragua, and Iran were invited only at ambassadorial level.