King Charles III leads procession of Queen’s coffin as crowd gather in London

King Charles III of the United Kingdom (U.K.) on Wednesday leads the procession of the coffin of his mother, late Queen Elizabeth II, on the streets of London, as people in their hundreds of thousands pay final respects to the demised Queen.

Since the death Queen Elizabeth II in Scotland six days ago, the corpse is being conveyed on a horse-drawn gun carriage from her Buckingham Palace residence to Westminster Hall where the remains will be displayed for four days before the funeral on Monday.

The king is leading other senior royals to walk in silence as the hearse moves slowly through the streets of London, before a vigil on arrival at the 12th-century hall in the Westminster parliament complex.

The public will be allowed in from 5.00pm (1600 GMT), as mourners were advised to be endure round-the-clock queues, as the crowd increases.

Vanessa Nanthakumaran, a 56-year-old administration assistant originally from Sri Lanka, who took her place at the head of the queue on Monday evening, was cited to have said: “It’s going to be emotional and I don’t know how I’ll feel going in there as the first one.

“It’s our duty to say thank you. It’s going to be prayers from the heart. It’s going to be very sombre, quiet and overwhelming.”

The British government on Wednesday released the map of the full route for the queue, which could snake back up to five miles (eight kilometres) along the river Thames, terminating in Southwark Park.

Spokesman for Prime Minister Liz Truss was said to have disclosed that strict rules and airport-style security measures have been put in place, in anticipation that “far more” people expected than the 200,000 who filed past the coffin of the queen’s mother when she died in 2002.

Also, the government advised people to wear “suitable clothing” and to bring portable battery packs to keep their mobile phones charged — an indication that some people will need to wait overnight for a glimpse of the casket.

It was said that hotel rooms in the capital have been filled and are becoming hard to find, with even budget rooms going for £300 ($350) per night, while transport bosses and police are under pressure to keep the city moving and safe in exceptional circumstances.