Headshot: The body of former Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi lies in an ambulance as it is brought to hospital in Misrata, a bullet hole visible in his temple;
Muammar Gaddafi has been killed after Libyan rebels captured his stronghold in the city of Sirte, it was confirmed today.
As news of his death swept through the country and across the world, bloody images of the 69-year-old tyrant slumped across the legs of a revolutionary fighter emerged.
He had been dragged from a storm drain where he was hiding before being shot in front of a baying mob. Rebel fighters described him begging for mercy.
Libya's prime minister Mahmoud Jibril this afternoon confirmed the former dictator was dead.
'We have been waiting for this moment for a long time,' he said. 'Muammar Gaddafi has been killed'
The new was also welcomed by David Cameron who said he was 'proud' of the role Britain had played in protecting Libyan civilians.
Gaddafi is the first leader to be killed in the Arab Spring wave of popular uprisings that swept the Middle East
The revolutionary offensive began around 8am local time and progressed quickly into the town centre.
Gaddafi had been barricaded in with his heavily armed loyalists in the last few buildings they held west of the central Green Square.
Nato airstrikes and revolutionary ground forces concentrated on a compound in that area of the town.
National Transitional Council (NTC) soldiers said that a convoy of at least five vehicles tried to leave the town in the early morning, but it came under sustained fire - first from a Hellfire missile and then from French fighters jets which were part of the Nato force.
The vehicles were forced to return to the loyalist-controlled area as battle continued.
Hiding hole: A fighter points to the concrete pipe where Gaddafi was reportedly found. Arabic graffiti in blue reads: 'This is the place of Gaddafi, the rat. God is the greatest'
Brutal: There had been fierce fighting around the drain before Gaddafi was finally killed. The body of a fighter can be seen in the dust at the centre of the screen;
Already a monument: As celebrations continued, more and more graffiti appeared at the entrance to the drain where the leader was eventually found;
Gaddaffi, already injured, was found a short time later in a large storm-water drain, and fighter Mohammed Al Bibi told reporters that the toppled tyrant had pleaded 'Don't shoot, don't shoot' as he attempted to surrender.
He had been wounded in the legs. NTC official Abdel Majid Mlegta said: 'He [Gaddafi] was also hit in his head. There was a lot of firing against his group and he died.'
Mobile phone footage, released shortly after the news of his capture broke, appears to show a bloodied Gaddafi being manhandled.
Al Jazeera was also repeatedly showing footage of what appeared to be Gaddafi's shirtless and lifeless body being dragged along the ground.
The body was then taken to the nearby city of Misrata, which Gaddafi's forces besieged for months in one of the bloodiest fronts of the civil war.
Al-Arabiya TV showed footage of Gaddafi's bloodied body carried on the top of a vehicle surrounded by a large crowd chanting: 'The blood of the martyrs will not go in vain.'
Double celebration: Anti-Gaddafi fighters celebrate the fall of Sirte, but the news soon came that the leader himself had been captured;
Rebels said he had been armed with a golden handgun when he was found and was wearing a khaki uniform. Later images showed young revolutionary soldiers sheering an holding a golden handgun.
Other soldiers say they slapped the dead Gaddafi's face with a shoe to expres their disgust and lack of respect.
The reports of Gaddafi's capture came on the same day that revolutionary forces said that they had taken control of Sirte - the leader's home town.
Celebrations: Thousands came out on the streets of Tripoli as news of the dictator's demise spread;
Joy: Many carried flags while some showed off pictures of the dead dictator who had been in power for 40 years;
Initial reports from CNN and the National Transitional Council (NTC) said Gaddafi was in custody, while Al Jazeera reported that a ‘big fish’ had been caught but did not provide a name. Al Jazeera later joined Al-Arabiya in saying that Gaddafi had been killed, but did not provide any further information.
Libya's transitional government forces have taken full control of the city - the last stronghold of Gaddafi loyalists. Gaddafi's presence there would explain why fighting had been so intense in the past few weeks.
Al Jazeera reported spontaneous celebration in cities like Benghazi and Tripoli, with people cheering and shouting, car horns sounding and small arms fire being heard.
The official also said the head of Gaddafi's armed forces, Abu Bakr Younus Jabr, was also killed during the capture of the former Libyan leader.
The NTC said Sirte's fall would be the point at which it would declare Libya liberated. The transitional authorities have said a new government would then be formed within a month, and the current administration would resign.
Golden trophy: Young Libyans hold a gold-plated handgun belonging to Gaddafi, while a still from mobile phone footage purportedly shows his bloodied body being carried in the street in Sirte
CAMERON: TYRANT'S FALL IS START OF 'STRONG, DEMOCRATIC FUTURE'
British Prime Minister David Cameron reacted to the news of Colonel Gaddafi's death by saying it held out the promise of a better future for the people he ruled for four decades.In a brief statement outside Downing Street, he said: 'People in Libya today have an even greater chance after this news of building themselves a strong and democratic future.'
Mr Cameron said he was 'proud' of the role Britain played in Nato airstrikes to protect Libyan civilians, and added that now was a time to reflect on the British victims of 'this brutal dictator and his regime', including: those who died at Lockerbie; Wpc Yvonne Fletcher, gunned down in a London street; and all those killed by the IRA using Semtex explosives supplied by Libya.
The U.S. State Department said today it could not confirm that Gaddafi had been captured.
White House officials were not immediately available to comment. The Pentagon also said it could not confirm the reports.
It is understood that Gaddafi’s son Saif has also been captured by rebels.
There were some reports that NATO had bombed a compound shortly before Gaddafi’s reported capture.
Gaddafi's killing is the most dramatic single development in the Arab Spring revolts that have unseated rulers in Egypt and Tunisia, and threatened the grip on power of the leaders of Syria and Yemen.
His capture followed within minutes of the fall of Sirte, a development that extinguished the last significant resistance by forces loyal to the deposed leader.
The capture of Sirte and the death of Gaddafi means Libya's ruling NTC should now begin the task of forging a new democratic system which it had said it would get under way after the city, built as a showpiece for Gaddafi's rule, had fallen.
Gaddafi, wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of ordering the killing of civilians, was toppled by rebel forces on 23 August after 42 years of one-man rule over the oil-producing North African state.
NTC fighters hoisted the red, black and green national flag above a large utilities building in the centre of a newly-captured Sirte neighbourhood and celebratory gunfire broke out among their ecstatic and relieved comrades.
Hundreds of NTC troops had surrounded the Mediterranean coastal town for weeks in a chaotic struggle that killed and wounded scores of the besieging forces and an unknown number of defenders.
NTC fighters said there were a large number of corpses inside the last redoubts of the Gaddafi troops.
A love for uniforms, female bodyguards and brutal repression
In the end Muammar Gaddafi's death was as violent as his life, gunned down without mercy in the crumbling ruins of his home town.
His love of comic-opera uniforms, exotic female bodyguards and Bedouin tents provided a theatrical backdrop for 42 years of bloody repression that, in the end, could not withstand a determined uprising backed by NATO air power.
Chased out of Tripoli by rebel forces, Gaddafi disappeared - some said into the empty desert spaces in the south of his vast country.
Eccentric style: Gaddafi was known for his love of over-the-top military-style uniforms and a cadre of young female bodyguards who were supposedly trained to kill;
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