Ramallah/Cairo: Yasser Arafat, the icon of Palestinian freedom struggle, was laid to rest in his ravaged West Bank headquarters in Ramallah amidst surge of emotions and hysteria with many of his supporters firing from Kalashnikovs in the air.

After an elaborate funeral with full military honours, reserved for a head of State in the Egyptian capital Cairo attended by world leaders, the Palestinian flag-draped coffin carrying the body of the 75-year old leader was flown in a helicopter in the compound of his headquarters where he lived his last three years as a virtual prisoner of Israel.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat passes away

Arafat's Olive branch eclipsed Palestinian Gun

World leaders, including Kings and Presidents attended the Cairo ceremony. External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh led a high-level delegation comprising Laloo Prasad Yadav, Ghulam Nabi Azad, E Ahamed and Sitaram Yechury at the funeral.

Watched by a sea of mourners, the coffin containing the body was lowered in the marble-and-stone grave in Muqata coinciding with the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan shortly before sunset.

As the coffin was placed in the grave, Muslim clerics read out verses from the holy Quran and Arafat's body guards wept and embraced each other.

As two helicopters carrying Arafat's body and top Palestinian leaders landed in the compound, the crowd surged towards them forcing the security to fire in the air which however failed keep the mourners at bay.

As the security people struggled to hold back the crowd all around, the vehicle inched its way to the burial site amidst relentless chants of "with our soul, with our blood, we will support you, Abu Ammar (Arafat)."