Singapore bade farewell to its founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who died on Monday aged 91.
Despite torrential rain, tens of thousands lined the streets to view the funeral procession carrying Mr Lee’s coffin through the city-state.
A state funeral then took place attended by world leaders, ahead of a private family cremation ceremony.
About 1.5m people paid tribute to Mr Lee at sites around the country this week the government said.
In his eulogy, Mr Lee’s son, the current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said his father had “lived and breathed Singapore all his life”. “The light that has guided us all these years has been extinguished,” he said
The funeral procession began as Mr Lee’s body was taken from Parliament House on a gun carriage. A 21-gun salute sounded, echoing across the city, as the procession moved on into the business district and Tanjong Pagar, the docklands constituency Mr Lee represented for his whole political life.
Military jets flew overhead while two Singaporean navy vessels conducted a sail-past of the Marina Bay barrage – the massive water conservation project spearheaded by Mr Lee.
Foreign leaders in attendance included former US President Bill Clinton, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and UK House of Commons leader William Hague. In his emotional eulogy, Prime Minister Lee said that although his father had not lived to see Singapore’s 50th anniversary celebrations later this year, the country could be proud he had “lived to see his life’s work come to fruition”.
He cited the famous epitaph for Sir Christopher Wren, architect of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral: if you seek his monument, look around you. “To those who seek Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s monument, Singaporeans can reply proudly: ‘look around you’,” he said.
After eulogies from nine other leading figures, sirens sounded across the city to mark the beginning and end of a minute’s silence. Singaporeans were asked to recite the national pledge of allegiance and join in singing the national anthem.
COURTESY: BBC NEWS