Royals stage vigil as mourners stream by queen's coffin

King Charles III and his siblings staged a vigil over the coffin of their mother, Queen Elizabeth II, as thousands of mourners in Edinburgh filed past to pay their final respects.

The new monarch, Princess Anne, Prince Edward and Andrew stood with heads bowed on the four sides of the oak casket lying in rest at the 12th-century St Giles' Cathedral.

The 10-minute ceremony -- known as the "Vigil of the Princes" -- came after the queen's children had walked slowly behind the hearse carrying their mother's body in a solemn procession through the heart of Scotland's capital.

Queues snaked back for hours as people waited to pass by the coffin before it got flown back to London on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the state funeral at Westminster Abbey on September 19.

The huge numbers who lined the streets of Edinburgh are a taste of the crowds expected in London when the late queen will lie in state for four days at Westminster Hall from Wednesday.

Britain has been plunged into grief by the death of Elizabeth II, who has been a fixture of the nation's life and consciousness for seven decades.

But for the royal family a very personal tragedy is playing out against the backdrop of global attention.

Prince Andrew was not wearing his military uniform for the procession, unlike his siblings, after stepping back from public life following a scandal over his links to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

But his presence represented a show of unity, as did a joint appearance at the weekend by Charles's warring sons William and Harry, as they surveyed flowers and cards left outside Windsor Castle.