Palace fuming at photographer following Queen Silvia injury

Sweden's Royal Court has accused a photographer of "stalking" Queen Silvia after she was injured trying to avoid "obstinate" shutterbug during her current visit to New York.

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"It's not a question of her simply wanting to avoid being photographed. It's more akin to stalking," Royal Court spokesperson Bertil Ternert told the Expressen newspaper.

"I view of the situation as a case of harassment [Swedish: 'ofredande'] according to Swedish law."

Several newspapers report that the photographer in question was working for Aftonbladet at the time of the incident, which took place on Tuesday in New York.

Aftonbladet's editor Jan Helin said he now plans to look into exactly what happened.

The encounter took place in connection with a visit by the Queen and Princess Madeleine to a store in New York, according to the Royal Court.

In a statement, the Royal Court said "the photographer didn't acknowledge their wish not to be photographed, but instead remained in the entryway of the store. The Queen felt the photographer was being obstinate and chose to go out through the store's side door. The Queen walked briskly to a parked car in order to avoid the photographer who ran after her. Unfortunately, the Queen then fell, injuring both her foot and wrist."

The Queen's visit to the United States will continue, according to the Royal Court, despite the incident.

"I deeply regret what happened," Aftonbladet's Hellin said to his own newspaper.

"On the one hand, it's a normal situation for a photographer to stand in a public place on a sidewalk and want to take a picture of the Queen when she's traveling and has public duties; on the other, something happened that has made the Queen feel uncomfortable and choose to avoid the photographer. I have to find out exactly what and afterwards decide if there is reason to change something in our procedures when it comes to keeping track of the royal family," Helin told Aftonbladet.

The injury comes days after the Queen had to cancel her second public appearance in the span of a week due to illness.

On March 28, the Queen was too ill to attend an event bidding farewell to Brazil's ambassador to Sweden, who is leaving the country.

A week before, Queen Silvia had to cancel her planned participation in a state visit to Botswana with King Carl XVI Gustaf.

She is currently in New York for a series of events connected to her the World Childhood Foundation, a foundation launched by the Queen designed to help impoverished children around the world.