LONDON, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- The British queen's top bodyguard was suspended when his handgun accidentally fired hours before the pope was scheduled to visit the palace, officials said.
Chief Superintendent Ian Boyes is back on duty after retraining in weapon-handling skills, The Guardian reported.
Boyes was off-duty, and cleaning his handgun when it accidentally discharged in the Royal palace just prior to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit on Sept. 16. No one was injured in incident, the report said.
"He was only suspended from the firearms part of his duty, and he retook the firearms test and is now back on duty," a spokesman for the palace said. "That's just standard procedure. It was an accident. There's no issue with it really."
Boyes is a firearms expert and has been the queen's bodyguard for nearly a decade, the report said.
