Queen stranded on freezing river

The Queen and Prince Philip had to be rescued when their boat broke down and began to drift as it crossed a freezing river.

The river taxi had to be lashed to another vessel to continue the crossing in safety in an astonishing drama on the latest leg of the Queen's Golden Jubilee tour of Canada.

As the royal couple were taken across the Red River in Winnipeg, where windchill made temperatures plunge to minus 2C, the boat's engine spluttered to a halt. The Queen's equerry signalled for help from the boat, which had begun to drift, and within seconds a second boat came alongside and the crew lashed the two vessels together.

As the Queen, white-faced, climbed ashore, she said to Gordon Cartwright, owner of Splash-Dash Water Buses, the firm which operates the boats: "That was interesting."

Prince Philip, a former sailor who holds the rank of admiral, appeared "frozen and furious" beside her as he got off the boat, according to one onlooker.

The crossing between the Forks area of Winnipeg and Saint-Boniface, the town on the opposite bank of the river, should have taken five minutes.

The royal couple had already sat through a 30-minute "cultural display" in the freezing conditions, which were so cold that ballet dancers performing during it were issued with thermal underwear.

Neither the Queen, 76, nor the Prince, 81, had been given rugs to keep them warm and were left to huddle in ordinary overcoats against the cold as they sat on an exposed dais on the banks of the Red River.

One Canadian official said: "We haven't had autumn - we've gone straight from summer to winter."

Winnipeg claims to be the coldest city in the world, with winter temperatures plunging to minus 40 celsius, chillier than Moscow.

At her next engagement after the boat drama, the Queen opted for a fur coat to keep out the biting wind. And at his next appearance, Prince Philip made light of the cold and the break-down. "There was some entertainment over the Forks which we just got to in time to stop people getting frostbite," he said. "Then the boat broke down on the way across."

The river rescue was the latest problem to hit the 12-day Golden Jubilee tour of Canada, which started last Friday in Canada's newest province, Nunavut, the self-governing territory of the Inuit peoples.

As final preparations were made for the Queen's arrival, Canada's deputy prime minister John Manley said he hoped she would be the country's last monarch.

He said she should be replaced by "a uniquely Canadian institution" and added: "It is not necessary, I think, for Canada to continue with monarchy."

The comments flew in the face of the 80 per cent approval rating a recent opinion poll gave to the monarchy in Canada.

Despite the controversy, Mr Manley is to escort the Queen round the capital Ottowa when she visits it on Sunday.