The state funeral of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong began at the National Funeral Hall in Hanoi on July 25.
The funeral is scheduled for two days, from July 25 to 26, and will be attended by Vietnamese and foreign leaders and people who wish to pay their respects to the party leader.
Starting at 5.45pm on July 25, the funeral organising committee arranged for the public to pay their respects to Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the National Funeral Hall at 5 Tran Thanh Tong Street.
People queued up to pay their respects to the Party leader at the National Funeral Hall on the afternoon of July 25.
Many people still wait to pay tribute to the late Party leader at 10 pm on July 25.
Long queue was seen at the National Funeral Hall early on the morning of July 26.
People attend a memorial service for Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at his hometown in Hanoi's Dong Anh District on July 25.
Alongside the state funeral organised at the National Funeral Hall at 5 Tran Thanh Tong Street in Hanoi, a memorial service is also taking place in several localities, including Hanoi's Dong Anh District, where the party leader was born and in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest financial-economic hub.
On July 25, a long queue of people was seen at the party leader's hometown in Hanoi's suburban Dong Anh District, where a memorial service was being held for him at Lai Da Village's Communal House.
Ngo Ba Duc, 81, was an old classmate of Party General Secretary Trong when they were at school in Dong Anh District. The elderly man burst into tears when he came to pay tribute to his friend, whom he remembered as very smart, modest, and hard-working.
Another friend of Trong, 85-year-old Ngo Khac Duy, arrived in a wheelchair to pay tribute to the late party leader.
"We were both from low-income families and faced lots of difficulties at school at that time, but we tried a lot to study well," Duy recalled. "Trong was calm and smart and loved by his teachers and friends."
Despite weak health, Luong Thi Thuc, 85, asked her grandchild to take her to pay respects to the late party leader.
"The death of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong was a great loss for our country and particularly for people in Dong Anh District, where he was born," Thuc said.
Teachers and students in Dong Anh's Dong Hoi Commune come to pay respects to the party leader.
