6 SEPTEMBER 2001
Sweden's King Carl Gustaf received an unpleasant surprise during a visit to a nature reserve when he was hit in the face by a strawberry tart thrown by a teenage boy.

The monarch’s bodyguards reacted quickly, catching the 16-year-old who had, worryingly, ran up to the king unhindered. He is still being detained and could be sent to jail for up to four years for such an offence.

As astounded onlookers and a perplexed Queen Silvia looked on, the King wiped the cake off his face and glasses with a handkerchief from his pocket and quickly got into a waiting car.

The Getterön reserve, some 70 kilometres south of Gothenburg, is located in part of an exposed seashore on the southwestern coast of Sweden and is one of Europe’s foremost breeding grounds for wetland birds.