Olympic flame to land in the UK today

The welcoming ceremony will take place at an airbase in Cornwall as a golden plane, called Firefly, arrives for the welcoming ceremony.

Princess Anne along with Olympics chairman Lord Sebastian Coe, London mayor Boris Johnson and footballer David Beckham will all be onboard.


Princess Anne takes the Olympic torch in Athens, Greece (Getty images)

The torch will then be taken around the country from Cornwall's Lands End all the way to the London Olympic stadium in Stratford by 8,000 British people selected as torchbearers along the route. The torch will pass through 1,019 cities, towns and villages in the British Isles. 

The flame started burning in Olympia, Greece - which is the home of the Olympic Games. A parabolic mirror, similar to a giant magnifying glass, was used in the ceremony to start the fire from the sun's rays. The flame is meant to represent purity, and has already been on a 1,800 mile-long relay around Greece.

"It's lighting the touch paper of a 70-day fuse that will then go off in the great pyrotechnics of the opening ceremony," said Boris Johnson.