Thailand’s former queen Sirikit dies aged 93

Queen Sirikit, the mother of Thailand’s King Vajiralongkorn, has died aged 93.

She passed away “peacefully” in a Bangkok hospital at 21:21 local time (14:21 GMT) on Friday night, according to the Thai Royal Household Bureau.

Sirikit had “suffered several illnesses” while in hospital since 2019, including a blood infection this month, it added.

For more than six decades, Queen Sirikit was married to Thailand’s longest-reigning monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in 2016.

Queen Sirikit suffered a stroke in 2012, after which she was rarely seen in public.

She met her future husband while studying music in Paris, where her father was stationed as Thai ambassador to France.

The couple married on 28 April 1950, just a week before King Bhumibol was crowned in Bangkok.