Norway's new King Haakon VIII led members of the royal family to a memorial service at Asker Church, near Oslo, as the country continues to mourn King Harald V, who died on Friday aged 89 after a 35-year reign. In his first broadcast as monarch the previous evening, an emotional Haakon, 53, paid tribute to his father, saying he would miss his laughter and vowed to serve Norway with the same dedication, even pledging to risk his life for the country's freedom and independence. The succession also makes his wife, Mette-Marit, queen, a transition marked by national mourning rather than celebration.

Tens of thousands of Norwegians have laid flowers and lit candles outside the Royal Palace, flags have been lowered to half-mast nationwide, and some families have postponed weddings and christenings, though no funeral date has yet been set. Harald, a cousin of King Charles III, had been hospitalised since 17 August with haemolytic anaemia; he was widely seen as a popular, unifying figurehead despite recent controversies involving Mette-Marit's past ties to Jeffrey Epstein and her son's rape conviction. There will be no coronation, as Norway abolished the practice in 1908, though a consecration ceremony at Trondheim Cathedral is possible, and Haakon will swear an oath of allegiance in parliament on Tuesday.