Keel laying ceremony takes place to mark start of building of Royal Navy Type 31 frigates in Rosyth

The start of building the Royal Navy Type 31 frigates in Rosyth has been marked with a keel laying ceremony.

It took place today at Babcock International's Venturer Building, where it will be home to two frigates for parallel and uninterrupted assembly.

The firm has started constructing the first of five Royal Navy Type 31 frigates, HMS Venturer, at the facility.

After cutting the first steel on the programme last September, the traditional keel laying event formally recognised the start of the build, including the placing a specially commissioned coin under the keel. 

Once the ship has been completed, the coin will be presented to the Captain and crew. 

The workforce were present to see the ceremony take place, while various dignitaries were also in attendance.

Babcock says the Type 31 programme is an important part of the shipbuilding pipeline set out in the UK Government's National Shipbuilding Strategy.

Josh Duffy, a seven-year-old school pupil at Lochgelly West Primary School, won a competition to design the coin.

He took part in the ceremony this morning.

Laying down the coin were apprentices Naimh Charleston and Ian Stevenson.

Anas Hassan, our Kingdom FM reporter, chatted with a range of people who were at the event: