Nine new bells have arrived at Notre Dame in Paris for imminent installation as part of the cathedral's 850th anniversary celebrations.

The new bells are scheduled to ring for the first time on 23 March, in time for Palm Sunday and Holy Week.

Eight bells cast in Normandy are destined for the cathedral's north tower and the largest, a six-ton bell cast in a foundry in Holland, will be installed in the south tower.

Many bells in Notre Dame were pulled down in the French Revolution and melted down. The eight replacement bells installed in the north tower in 1856 had become discordant.