Queen Elizabeth II's funeral to be held on September 19
London: The demise of Queen Elizabeth II sets in motion a finely choreographed plan honed and planned to the last detail over decades. The state funeral is expected to take place in Westminster Abbey with huge crowds gathering in central London on September 19.
Senior members of the royal family are likely to walk behind the coffin as it is taken on a gun carriage to the abbey with a two-minute silence observed. Afterwards, the queen's coffin will be taken to Windsor Castle for a televised committal service at St George's Chapel.
She will then be interred privately at the King George VI memorial chapel, alongside her husband, Prince Philip, the ashes of her sister Princess Margaret, their mother, also called Elizabeth, and father George VI.
Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving monarch in British history, died on Thursday. She was 96.
Buckingham Palace announced her death in a short statement, triggering 10 days of national mourning and an outpouring of tributes to her long life and record-breaking reign. The eldest of her four children, Charles, Prince of Wales, who at 73 is the oldest heir apparent in British history, becomes king immediately.
According to reports, Prince Charles III will officially be proclaimed the King of Britain on Saturday. He had travelled to Scotland to be by the Queen's side on Thursday and has made his way back to London to take over the formal responsibility.
In London, 96 rounds of gun salute one for every year of the Queen's life have been fired in tribute to the late monarch from the Tower of London and Hyde Park by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery and the Honourable Artillery Company.
Churches also tolled their bells, after the Church of England sent out guidance to parishes, chapels and cathedrals across the country encouraging them to open for prayer or special services. Major sporting events, including football and cricket matches, have been postponed as a mark of respect.
British Prime Minister Liz Truss led tributes at a special joint Parliament session convened to pay tribute to the Queen.
The special session is expected to last through the day until 10 pm local time. The regular business of government is at a halt, unless anything urgent occurs, with the focus to fall entirely on the Queen during the 10-hour sitting of Parliament.
Truss said that since the death of the Queen was announced there has been the "most heartfelt outpouring of grief" across the world.
"Everyone who met her will remember the moment. They will speak of it for the rest of their lives. Even those who never met her, her late majesty's image is an icon for what Britain stands for as a nation," she said, reiterating her earlier statement describing the late monarch as the rock on which modern Britain was built.
With reference to the Queen's heir King Charles III, she told the Commons that the nation will offer its "loyal service to our new King".
Truss and senior ministers are scheduled for a public service of remembrance at St. Paul's Cathedral in central London and then the government is due to confirm the length of national mourning, from now up to the day after the Queen's funeral. The funeral day will be a public holiday in the form of a Day of National Mourning.
Overnight on Thursday, crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace in London and also at Windsor Castle in Berkshire, with many in tears as they paid their personal tributes to Britain's longest-serving monarch who died aged 96 after a 70-year reign.
