A tip-off and 'more luck than judgement': The story behind Andrew car snap

The image of a stunned Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor slumped back in a car after his arrest has been splashed over newspapers and websites worldwide.

And the Reuters photographer who took it, Liverpool-born Phil Noble, said capturing the moment was "more luck than judgement".

When news broke on Thursday morning that the King's brother had been detained by police, Noble drove six hours south from his Manchester home to Norfolk where the former prince resides.

He usually captures pictures for an array of stories and had been covering floods and football fixtures earlier this week.

But he described Thursday's momentous event, where the first senior British royal in modern history had been arrested, as "a proper old school news day, a guy being arrested, who can we call, tracking him down".

The former prince was detained on suspicion of misconduct in public office after police arrived at his Sandringham Estate home in unmarked cars at about 08:00 GMT on Thursday, two hours before the news was confirmed and revealed to the public.

He was then taken to a Norfolk police station for questioning on what was his 66th birthday.

Since officers from Thames Valley Police had taken him into custody, there were potentially 20 or more police stations in southeast England where he could have been held.

Following a tip-off, Noble headed to the police station in the historic market town of Aylsham, more than an hour's drive from Andrew's home.

Some other members of the media were also waiting outside but not much was going on, Noble said.

After six hours of waiting in the cold and night falling, it seemed like the tip-off was wrong.

Noble packed up and started heading down the road towards a hotel for an overnight stay.

But minutes later, he got a call from his Reuters colleague Marissa Davison, who was still outside the station, that Andrew's cars had arrived.

Noble raced back, just in time to see the two vehicles leaving at high speed.

The front car contained two police officers so Noble aimed his camera and flash at the car behind.

He took six pictures - two showed police, two were blank and one was out of focus.

The remaining one is now being shown everywhere – a shocked Andrew leaning back on a car seat, his eyes reflecting the photographers' flashes at night in what's known as the red-eye effect.

The unprecedented nature of the event – plus the clear focus on Andrew's face – secured frontpage coverage worldwide.

"You can plan and use your experience and know roughly what you need to do, but still everything needs to align," said Noble.

"When you're doing car shots, it's more luck than judgment."

On Friday morning, Noble rejoined media teams outside the Sandringham Estate, where Andrew returned after being released under investigation.

The BBC doesn't know the specifics of the allegations but the detention follows previously-reported claims that he shared official documents from trade visits and a confidential briefing on investment in Afghanistan with the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein - as well as passing a Treasury briefing to a personal business contact.

He has consistently denied any wrongdoing in his associations with Epstein.