King and Queen's royal US state visit starts today amid security fears after gunman stormed Trump dinner: live updates

By SOPHIA STANFORD, NEWS REPORTER King Charles and Queen Camilla will fly to Washington today to start a four-day state visit, despite security concerns after a gunman tried to storm a dinner President Trump was hosting. Britain's ambassador to the US confirmed that 'all appropriate security measures' are in place, with the palace confirming the visit would 'proceed as planned' despite what the White House called an attempted assassination of the president. Sources told the Daily Mail the monarch is determined to 'keep calm and carry on' – and that if the Government wants him to travel, 'that's exactly what he will do'.  The royal couple were initially visiting Washington DC, New York and Virginia to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence - but also to help strengthen the special UK-US relationship, which has been under serious strain in recent months.  The visit is the most important foreign trip of the King’s reign so far but now has the added element of increased security concerns. It comes at a pivotal moment for the UK and US, with relations between Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the American leader fractious. Suspected gunman, identified by authorities as Cole Allen, 31, of Torrance, California reportedly charged a security checkpoint armed with a shotgun, a handgun and several knives at the White House Correspondent's Dinner on Saturday. Allen was tackled by agents after a brief but terrifying exchange of gunfire in the hotel lobby. One Secret Service agent was shot but was wearing a bulletproof vest and escaped without serious injury. As many as eight shots were fired during the incident. Despite the quick reaction of security services, Allen had managed to come within 100 yards of President Trump as well as dozens of key officials. Mr Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and Vice President JD Vance were hurried off the ballroom stage after the gunman exchanged fire with Secret Service agents. Authorities said Allen, a Democrat-supporting, 31-year-old teacher had checked in as a guest at the hotel. He is reported to have told officers he wanted to shoot officials in the Trump administration. King Charles has vowed to persevere with his State Visit to the US today despite an apparent assassination attempt on the President. Sources told the Daily Mail the monarch is determined to 'keep calm and carry on' – and that if the Government wants him to travel, 'that's exactly what he will do'. On Sunday, Buckingham Palace confirmed the King and Queen Camilla wanted to 'do their duty' – they are expected to arrive as planned on Monday afternoon. However, an urgent security review was under way in light of the dramatic incident in the US capital on Saturday and some 'modest operational adjustments' will be made to 'a few elements' of Their Majesties' programme. Thanks for joining us as we follow along live to the King's state visit to the US. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.