Ceremonial gun salutes were fired across the United Kingdom on Friday following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
The gun salutes fired 96 rounds, marking each year of the late monarchs life. A video shared by Twitter user @maryann55436 shows smoke rising from Londons Hyde Park as the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery fires the Death Gun Salute.
Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne in 1952, making her the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch. The queens husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, died in 2021. They had four children, eight grandchildren, and twelve great-grandchildren.
Crowds also lined the streets in London on Friday to greet King Charles motorcade on its way to Buckingham Palace. The queens eldest son and heir to the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is now King Charles III.
“We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother,” he said in his first statement as monarch. “During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held.”
