London:
An eagle-eyed Indian-origin photographer was the first to report that Prince William's wife Kate had gone into labour, according to a report.
Jesal Parshotam, 24, was among a crowd of paparazzi outside St Mary's Hospital here when he had spotted that the royal couple was being sneaked into the private Lindo Wing of the facility through a back entrance on Monday morning.
Parshotam was with his colleague Darren Sacks, when a BMW and a people carrier arrived at the hospital carrying Kate and Prince William and royal protection officers, The London
Evening Standard newspaper reported.
Moments later, Parshotam broke the news, writing on his Twitter page: "Kate Middleton has gone into hospital..."
Twitter users from around the world immediately began bombarding their accounts with questions about Kate's admittance and with messages congratulating the pair on their scoop.
Parshotam, who spends a lot of time following the royals around as well as other top celebrities, said: "We took a guess. It was a full moon so we thought why not come down? We stayed there from 8pm in the evening until about 5.30am.
"We were just standing outside chilling and talking and then it all happened. The cars showed up. They were very, very simple cars - it was very discreet...the protection officers jumped out and they all rushed in. It was a very swift manoeuvre. The Duchess went in and the cars were gone very quickly - within a minute. That was it."
Parshotam, however, said he chose not to take a picture of the Duke and Duchess emerging from the car, because she was in labour.
"I made that decision - she's a woman in labour. I just wanted to photograph the commotion and convoy of cars. That was a personal decision we both made. To take a picture of her would have been over stepping the mark," claimed Parshotam.
"The protection officers were surprised to see us. They asked us why we were there and questioned us," he said. "I guess it's the biggest scoop of my career."
After more than 10 hours of labour, 31-year-old Kate gave birth to a future king on Monday night.