'Tens of thousands' of mourners in Edinburgh to pay respect to the Queen with queues overnight

Tens of thousands of mourners are in Edinburgh to pay their respects to the Queen, with reports today of 'ten deep' overnight queues and the numbers swelling to hundreds of thousands.

The public were warned to expect a 12-hour wait to see the late monarch's coffin as Her Majesty lies at rest at St Giles' Cathedral in the Scottish capital, but people who queued overnight said today their wait-time was five or six hours. Lord Ian Duncan, the Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords, said crowds along the Royal Mile were 'ten-deep', with streets surrounding the historic precinct equally crammed with people.

"The sheer quantity of individuals moving into Edinburgh today indicates that there will be many tens – possibly even hundreds – of thousands of people who will wish to pay their respects to the late Queen," Lord Duncan told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National programme on Tuesday morning.

"That is an extraordinary outpouring of respect, grief, celebration of an extraordinary woman. By goodness, they were ten-deep. They had to stop people trying to get there because it would have become dangerous.

“The streets around (the Royal Mile) were crammed and now, as people wait to walk past the coffin itself, the expectation of the numbers and the sheer quantity of humanity in Edinburgh today is extraordinary."

The line from the cathedral doors is said to stretch back for at least a mile. A lone piper stood on a bench was spotted in The Meadows park as waiting queues of people slowly filed past to get to the cathedral.

The Queen's coffin will continue to lie at rest at St Giles' today before being moved to Edinburgh Airport at 5pm - with more mourners expected to line the route.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike