British stars of the Olympics and Paralympics are due to celebrate their success during a victory parade through the streets of central London later.

Tens of thousands are expected to watch the parade which comes after the London 2012 Paralympics closing ceremony.

Sunday’s show, which celebrated ancient British festivals, was led by UK band Coldplay and included an official handover to 2016 host Rio de Janeiro.

It ended what organisers said had been “the greatest Paralympic Games ever”.

Later, about 800 British Olympic and Paralympic athletes – including Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis, Hannah Cockcroft and Jonnie Peacock – are set to travel on 21 open-top floats, grouped in alphabetical order by their sport.

The celebrations include a flypast over The Mall, while a big screen at the base of Nelson’s Column, with live commentary, will allow spectators to cheer on the athletes.

London Mayor Boris Johnson said: “This summer our great city has hosted an unbelievable spectacle of sport and thousands will want to celebrate the achievements of our athletes by coming to the parade.

“It promises to be an incredible afternoon but I do want to remind people coming that we expect the route to be extremely busy and planning ahead is absolutely crucial if they are going to be able to make the most of their day.”

Sunday’s Paralympics closing ceremony, described as a “festival of flame”, saw Coldplay perform songs from their five albums while disabled and non-disabled dancers performed with flames around the burning face of a “sun king”.

‘Eternal nature’

The sold-out finale also featured performances from pop star Rihanna, rapper Jay-Z and a cast of around 1,200 performers on three circular stages – Summer, Winter and the Sundial.

Declaring the 2012 Paralympics closed, International Paralympic Committee president, Sir Philip Craven, said: “These Games have changed us all forever.”

As Sunday’s Paralympic Games closing ceremony drew to a close, Paralympians Ellie Simmonds and Jonnie Peacock helped to put out the Paralympic flame, which was shared out across the stadium symbolising “the eternal nature of the flame living among us all”.

Each participating country will take home one of the 200 copper petals that made up the Paralympic cauldron.

Speaking to the 80,000-strong crowd, organising committee chairman Lord Coe said the UK would “never think of sport the same way and we will never think of disability the same way.

“The Paralympians have lifted the cloud of limitation.”

He added: “Finally, there are some famous words you can find stamped on the bottom of a product. Words, that when you read them, you know mean high quality, mean skill, mean creativity.

“We have stamped those words on the Olympic and Paralympic games of London 2012.

“London 2012. Made in Britain.”

IPC president Sir Philip Craven said the Games had been “unique and without doubt, in my mind and those of the athletes – the greatest Paralympic Games ever”.

China finished top of the Paralympic medals table, with 231 medals – 95 gold. Great Britain cemented third place behind Russia, with a tally of 120, including 34 golds.

In other developments on the final weekend of the 2012 Paralympic Games:

• Thousands of spectators cheered GB’s David Weir to victory in the wheelchair marathon – his fourth 2012 gold medal.
• Team-mate Shelly Woods took the silver in the women’s race
• On Sunday, Brazil’s Tito Sena won the T46 marathon, and Alberto Suarez of Spain won gold in the T12 event, breaking his own world record with a time of 2:24:50
• Channel 4 revealed more than four million people tuned in to watch South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius win gold in the T44 400m on Saturday night
• Organisers say some 2.7 million Paralympic tickets had been sold – beating targets by 200,000 and predicted sales by £10m

As Sunday’s show began, a tribute was paid to the armed forces and military charity, Help for Heroes.

GB Paralympians David Weir and Sarah Storey, who both won four gold medals at the Games, carried the British flag into the stadium, as flagbearers representing 164 nations participating in the Paralympics entered the arena.

And Captain Luke Sinnott, who lost both legs in an IED bomb blast while serving in Afghanistan, climbed the flagpole to raise the union jack.

After the Paralympic flag was passed to the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, performers from Rio – which will stage the games in 2016 – put on a colourful performance fusing hip-hop freestyle and samba, performed by disabled and non-disabled dancers.

BBC