Shawdesh desk:

The funeral service to remember Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, is taking place at Westminster Abbey.

Among the guests are world leaders including US President Biden and hundreds of other foreign dignitaries.

The Dean of Westminster, who is leading the service, expressed gratitude for the Queen’s “life-long sense of duty”.

King Charles III led a sombre procession behind his mother’s coffin from Westminster Hall to the abbey.

The Dean, the Very Rev David Hoyle, began the service by speaking of the Queen’s “unswerving commitment to a high calling over so many years as Queen and Head of the Commonwealth”.

“With admiration we recall her life-long sense of duty and dedication to her people,” he said.

The service has been filled with traditional church music and readings from the Bible.

As the Queen’s coffin entered Westminster Abbey the choir sang lines, known as the Sentences, put to music which has been used at every state funeral since the early 18th century.

Prime Minister Liz Truss read to the mourners from John 14 and the congregation sang The Lord’s My Shepherd – a hymn sung at the wedding of the Queen to the Duke of Edinburgh.

The Queen’s coffin was conveyed – in the first of three processions throughout the day – from Westminster Hall where she was lying in state since Wednesday.

The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex walked side-by-side behind their father, the King. The King walked alongside his siblings, the Queen’s four children.

The procession to the abbey saw the State Gun Carriage carry the coffin, drawn by 142 sailors, while the sound of pipes and drum rang out.

This is the first state funeral to be held since Sir Winston Churchill’s in 1965.

Following the service, the coffin will be drawn in a walking procession from the Abbey to Wellington Arch, at London’s Hyde Park Corner, to the sombre toll of Big Ben.

Gun salutes will also fire every minute from Hyde Park during the procession and people can watch in person from designated viewing areas along the route.

At a private family service later, the Queen will be buried alongside her late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, at the King George VI memorial chapel, located inside St George’s Chapel.