Royal Navy ship docked in Dubai marks accession of King Charles III with 21-gun salute

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A Royal Navy vessel docked in Dubai performed a 21-round gun salute on Saturday.

The display by HMS Montrose at 2pm marked the accession of King Charles III as the new reigning monarch of the UK.

On Friday, the same vessel performed a 96-round gun salute in honour of the queen who died the night before – one round for each year of her life.

A period of national mourning began across the UAE on Friday and will continue until Monday to honour the longest-reigning British Monarch.

Residents are also making their way to the Queen Elizabeth 2 ship in Dubai to leave flowers and trinkets at the foot of a bust of the British monarch.

The location for Abu Dhabi's book of condolence will be St Andrew's Church and available for people to sign from Monday.

HMS Montrose, a Type 23 frigate, is on long-term deployment to the Gulf, where it protects shipping lanes as part of Operation Kipion.

Its crew seized smuggled Iranian missiles in July and carried out one of the biggest drug busts in a decade in January, when a tonne of drugs worth about $20 million was captured off the coast of Oman.