Royal insult: King Charles sneezed on by alpaca with crown on his head
Australia - The British King Charles III was sneezed on by a suit-wearing alpaca during his visit to Australia on Monday.
While greeting fans in the capital Canberra, Charles stopped in front of an alpaca with a golden crown on its head and wrapped in a golden suit. As he stroked the nose of the animal, named Hephner, it sneezed at the king.
"Bless you," someone in the crowd called out to the animal , and Charles briefly checked his right lapel for traces of Hephner's sneeze.
The 75-year-old monarch is currently on a nine-day tour of Australia and Samoa, his first major trip abroad since being diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.
The incident with the alpaca occurred on Monday morning at a barrier near the Australian War Memorial.
Sneezing alpaca was not King Charles III's first encounter with Australia's wildlife
Later, Charles told MPs about previous encounters with Australia's wildlife. He jokingly recalled his time as a 17-year-old at a rural secondary school called Timbertop.
"All I can say is that I arrived as an adolescent and left school with a more settled, if not polished, personality, having tussled with brown snakes, leeches, funnel web spiders and bull ants," he said to laughter.