There is a growing crowd of mourners gathering at the Moscow church where the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny is due to take place Friday – in about one hour, a CNN team on the ground reports.
Here’s what else the team is seeing:
People, many holding flowers, are standing behind crowd control barriers and the queue continues to grow. A number of police are stationed at the entrance to the church, where a metal detector has been installed.
Crowd control barriers have been erected along the route to the cemetery. There are dozens of police vans around the Borisovsky cemetery, where Navalny will be buried after the funeral service at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God ‘Quench My Sorrows’ in the Maryino district.
Video also shows police asking people through loud-hailers not to block traffic in the area.
Some toilet facilities have also been set up outside the barriers.
Meanwhile, social media video and photographs show police close to the church and around the nearby Maryino metro station.
The funeral is due to begin at 6 a.m. ET. The cemetery is some 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) from the church.
