Queen Elizabeth II has died aged 96, Buckingham Palace said.
“The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow,” the palace said in a statement.
According to media reports in the UK, a state funeral will take place at Westminster Abbey in ten days’ time, which will see the nation observe a two-minute silence before the queen is buried at Windsor Castle.
She became queen in 1952 after the premature death of her father George VI and went on to become both the country’s longest-lived and longest-serving monarch.
The queen has been affected by mobility problems over the last year and greatly reduced her public appearances, including missing the state opening of parliament in May and a service of thanksgiving to celebrate her seventy years on the throne.
Meanwhile, the queen married Philip Mountbatten in 1947, a marriage that lasted until his death in 2021 and produced four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward.