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A post claiming The Queen of England is going to die on Saturday, January 5 has been discussed thousands of times by users around the world since it was first uploaded at the end of December.

The original post has since been deleted and the Reddit user who posted it has disappeared - with his post and comment deleted.

But users have saved screengrabs of the deleted comments - discussing whether it was a prediction, or a threat.

People have also been investigating what the odds are of Queen Elizabeth II actually dying on Saturday, and what would happen if she did.

The original post was made just after Christmas Day by a Reddit user called Beefy_Cabbage.

It was upvoted around 50,000 times and attracted 7,000 comments before it was deleted, and beefy_cabbages account shut down.

Users, many who have created memes around the death of the Queen in the wake of the post, say if the worst actually did happen the original user would either be the star of a 'creepy predictions' phenomenon - or would be hunted down by British intelligence force MI6. Others pointed out that MI5 deals with domestic affairs in British espionage, not MI6.

(Image: Reddit/beefy_cabbage)

Reddit user BigTicketKAT wrote: "This is one of those posts that's going to be a part of a YouTube video called "creepy unexplainable reddit posts."

Alexandeadmau5 wrote: "Imagine if The Queen gets on reddit and sees this" while Sunghj118 said: "Plot twist, this is the queen's alt account and she's orchestrating all of this to fake her death and pass on the throne."

User TheStakesAreHigh has said the odds of The Queen dying on Jaunary 5 are pretty low, adding: "Elizabeth II is currently 92 years old. Via this website , the odds for a 92-year-old woman to die within the next year of her life is 16.06% (which will be rounded up to 16.1% for simplification). Dividing this probability evenly among all 365 days of the year (which is not how it works, but it's all that we have to go off of), each day of her 92nd year, the Queen has about a 0.04411% chance of dying on any given day.

"Now, in order to fulfill /u/beefy_cabbage 's legendary prediction, the Queen would need to NOT die before January 5th, and then die on that day. There are 9 days before the 5th (27th-4th), so the probability ends up being:

"(100%-0.04411%) * 0.04411% (the first term representing the nine days she would survive and the second term representing the day she would die).

"By this expression, the Queen has a 0.04393% chance of dying on January 5th, 2019. This is about a 1 in 2276 chance. So it's pretty unlikely (but definitely still within the realm of possibility!) that she'll die then. God Save the Queen."

What will happen when The Queen dies?

The Queen's death will trigger an official 12-day period of national mourning.

Union Flags will be flown at half mast throughout the country and books of condolence will be opened at embassies across the world.

The London Stock Exchange will be closed for at least the day of the Queen's funeral and potentially for several days - potentially costing the economy billions.

The Queen’s body will be taken to Parliament, where she will lie in state in Westminster Hall – like the Queen Mother in 2002 – until her funeral.

More than 200,000 people travelled to pay their respects to the Queen Mother and that number is expected to be vastly exceeded in the event of the Queen's death.

Media coverage

The licence fee-funded BBC will suspend all programming and screen BBC One coverage of the event.

If Her Majesty dies during the night, her death would reportedly not be announced until 8am, after which her portrait will be displayed on the screen accompanied by the national anthem - as happened following the death of Princess Diana in 1997.

Other channels are not required to interrupt regular scheduling, but almost certainly will.

The BBC will also suspend all comedy programming during the 12-day period of national mourning.

The Beeb regularly practices how it will respond to the Queen's death.

It was during one practice exercise when a BBC Urdu journalist mistakenly tweeted that the Queen had died last year.

The succession

As first in line to the throne, Prince Charles will automatically become King when the Queen dies as the throne is technically never vacant.

However, the accession council would need to be convened at St James’s Palace to formally declare Charles the king.

He would be asked to swear loyalty to Parliament and the Church of England in front of the council.

In turn, the Houses of Parliament will be recalled to swear loyalty to him.

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The words to the National Anthem will be changed and new postage stamps and currency created to reflect Prince Charles’ ascension to the throne.

The only way Prince William would become king is if Prince Charles chooses to abdicate and pass the throne to him.

Charles has increased his workload since 2013 as the Queen's has reduced in what appears to be a handover of the reins.

However, a survey last April found that only 53 per cent of people say they like Charles, compared to 77 per cent for the Queen.

The funeral

The Queen's state funeral will be the biggest ever seen in the UK - far eclipsing the likes of Princess Diana, the Queen Mother and Margaret Thatcher.

The service will be led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently the Rev Justin Welby.

Politicians and heads of state from across the globe will attend as well as the Royal Family.

As such, the event is likely to be one of the most heavily-protected of all time, with armed forces drafted in to guard against potential terror attacks.

Her coffin will be taken from Westminster Hall and travel through crowds of thousands of mourners by gun carriage to Westminster Abbey for the service.

It is expected the Queen will be interred in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, where her mother and father, King George VI, are buried.