Hassan Nasrallah, the veteran Hizbollah leader who was killed in an Israeli air strike five months ago, was buried on Sunday after a ceremony in Beirut attended by huge crowds of supporters.

Clutching pictures of Nasrallah and draped in the yellow flags of the militant group, supporters from Lebanon and beyond filled the 55,000-seat Camille Chamoun Sports City stadium, with many more spilling into the streets outside. The funeral was intended as a show of force for a movement that has been battered in its war with Israel.

Many wept as the coffins of Nasrallah and his successor Hashem Safieddine, who ran Hizbollah for just a week before he was also assassinated by Israel, were paraded through the stadium. Some tossed flowers, while others threw small objects on to the coffins in the hope they would be blessed by the contact.