Huge queue as Hong Kongers mourn Queen Elizabeth II

Crowds of Hong Kongers queued in sweltering heat on Monday to pay tribute to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, some expressing nostalgia for the city's colonial past at a time when China is seeking to purge dissent.

A line of people hundreds of metres long snaked through the business district to the British consulate where a condolence book had been opened for residents to sign.

"Hong Kong was a British colony certainly and she was the monarch.

We have a very distant relationship, yet very familiar," said Hong Konger Cecile, who came to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth.