The Royal Family has been targeted by almost 500 potential stalkers in the past three years, it has been reported. In shocking figures pinpointed by specialist protection officers who guard the Royal Family, 35 of those have been deemed as "high risk".

According to figures from the Metropolitan Police’s Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, the number in this most serious category rose from 24 to 35 in the previous three years. According to the Mirror, the total number of potential stalkers went up from 433 to a staggering 480.

Speaking of such threats, Dai Davies - who is a former head of the Met’s royal protection command - said: "Unfortunately there will always be deranged people who want to do harm to the Royal Family.

"The difficult job for the police is determining which of them have the means and determination to go through with any plan."

Discussing those who are a "significant risk" to the royals, he added: "There are probably 50 to 100 people they are currently monitoring who they feel could pose a significant risk.

"Quite often these people will be mentally unwell and some will be quite unsophisticated. It’s not unknown that these people will be so obsessed they have written to the object of their fixation and revealed their own name and address."

Further explaining, he added: "These [pinpointed risks] are only the ones that have been brought to the attention of the authorities. There may be many more lurking in the shadows.

"It is impossible for the police to be 100 percent confident of weeding out all the people who might want to harm the Royal Family."

In 2023, crossbow-wielding Jaswant Singh Chail, then aged 21, was jailed for nine years after arriving at Windsor Castle at Christmas 2021 and telling police he was "here to kill the [late] Queen".

Jaswant claimed that he was spurred on by his artificial intelligence chatbot "girlfriend". This occured just nine months before the late Queen died aged 96 in September 2022.