Saturday September 6 5:16 AM EDT Princess Diana Starts Final Journey By Jill Serjeant LONDON (Reuter) - Britain's Princess Diana began her final journey on Saturday through the sombre streets of London, lined with millions of mourners gathered to bid farewell to the "people's princess." "We love you, Diana," "Bless you, bless you," people shouted as the cortege passed. Flowers were thrown at the coffin from crowds packed 10 deep at crash barriers on the route. Some women could be heard wailing. A single church bell tolled mournfully on a brilliant sunlit morning as Diana's coffin was placed on a simple gun carriage outside her Kensington Palace home in west London. Draped in the maroon and yellow royal standard flag and crowned with three sprays of white lilies, the gun carriage was taken by six horses on its slow two-hour journey to Westminster Abbey. Britain came to a standstill. Shops and banks closed until after the service and sports fixtures were cancelled. An eerie silence descended on deserted roads around the country. Up to six million people lined the route to the abbey, echoing the size but not the mood of 1981 when Diana married heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and quickly became the brightest star in the British monarchy. Diana's sudden death in a car crash on Sunday at the age of 36 has overwhelmed a nation usually known for its reserve. "Never before, in the long and often anguished history of the human race, has anyone been mourned as Diana is today. Never has there been such an aching sense of loss," said the Daily Express newspaper. In a radio prayer on Saturday, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey paid tribute to Diana's "extraordinary beauty, flair, courage and marvellous capacity to communicate human warmth." "Her special place in so many people's hearts was due also to the fact that they could identify with her vulnerability, with the times she suffered and stumbled, and the way she was able to turn the struggles into compassion for others," Carey added. A one-minute silence will be observed after the service before Diana's body is taken for burial at her family's ancestral home in Althorp, 80 miles (130 km) north of London. On Friday night, young and old from across the country watched silently as Diana's coffin was transported westwards from St James's Palace where it had lain all week. Some 30,000 people camped out on the streets and in parks ahead of Saturday's ceremony. "Princess Diana cared for people and now it is time for people to show that they care for what she did," said one young woman who had spent the night in a tent. At the end of the funeral procession Diana's coffin will be borne into the abbey by eight bearers from the Prince of Wales Company of the First Batallion, Welsh Guards. Among those inside the abbey will be representatives of the 100 charities associated with Diana as well as U.S. first lady Hillary Clinton and pop star Elton John, who will sing a re-written version of his song "Candle in the Wind," originally a tribute to screen goddess Marilyn Monroe. Diana died in a high-speed car crash in Paris with her companion Dodi Al Fayed after allegedly being pursued by paparazzi photographers. France's probe into the crash widened on Friday when authorities put three more photographers under investigation for manslaughter. Nine photographers and one picture agency motorcyclist are now suspects. Diana's Spencer family has also filed a civil suit in the case. In the most personal and emotional speech of her reign, Queen Elizabeth on Friday cast aside protocol to acknowledge the national outpouring of sorrow for Diana, who was stripped of her Royal Highness title on her divorce from Charles a year ago. Criticised for remaining aloof and remote in Scotland in the days following Diana's death while Britons took to the streets with flowers and candles, the royal family on Friday mingled with mourners to pay tribute to her. The gesture helped deflect some of the criticism that the royal family was out of touch with the public mood. "Let us hope we are seeing a new monarchy, one that is more human, less detached and more in touch. That would be the perfect legacy to the People's Princess," said the Sun tabloid.