Statue of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst is being unveiled in her home city of Manchester

A statue of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst is being unveiled in her home city of Manchester.

Exactly 100 years since the first women in the UK voted in a general election, it will be the first statue of a woman unveiled in the city since Queen Victoria's in Piccadilly Gardens in 1901.

Emmeline Pankhurst was selected as the public's chosen female icon to be immortalised as a statue from a long list of 20 inspiring Mancunian females.

As well as voting for Emmeline, the public also voted for Hazel Reeves' Rise Up, Women as the winning design from a short list of six maquettes.

The unveiling is the culmination of the Our Emmeline campaign which was launched in 2014 to celebrate the significant contribution of women to Manchester.

Emmeline's great grand-daughter Helen Pankhurst had the vision this should be an occasion that sees people gather from across Greater Manchester to march to meet Our Emmeline.

Supporters will walk from the Pankhurst Centre, the former home of Emmeline Pankhurst and the birthplace of the suffragette movement, and also the People's History Museum to watch the unveiling in St Peter's Square at midday.

The statue shows the political campaigner stood on top of a chair to address people gathered to hear her words.

In Hazel Reeves' design, the meeting circle in which she is stood is symbolically orientated towards the former Free Trade Hall, where the first disruptive meetings of the suffragettes took place.