Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians flooded the streets of Phnom Penh Friday for funeral proceedings for the former king Norodom Sihanouk, who died in October.
Many of the mourners wept as the funeral procession carrying his casket wove through the streets of the capital city to a cremation ground next to the palace, where he was crowned as a teenagers in 1941.
His body has been lying in state at the Royal Palace after being flown from Beijing, where he died October 15 of a heart attack at the age of 89. The cremation - the climax of seven days of mourning - will take place Monday.
Sihanouk aligned himself with the murderous Khmer Rouge after he was ousted in 1970, only to later be imprisoned by the regime. He eventually fled to China.
After the Khmer Rouge fell in 1979, Sihanouk led an insurgency against the Vietnamese-installed government in his home country. He then returned to the throne in Cambodia where he abdicated in 2004, making way for his son to become king.
Fireworks explode over the Tonle Sap River for the cremation of Cambodia's former King Norodom Sihanouk in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, February 4, 2013.
Cambodian Queen Monique receives condolences at the crematorium site of her husband, the late King Norodom Sihanouk in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, February 4, 2013.
Cambodians pray near the cremation of former King Norodom Sihanouk in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, February 4, 2013. (R. Carmichael/VOA)
The coffin carrying the late former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk in a funeral procession leaves the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, February 1, 2013.
Mourners pay their respects to the late former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk in a funeral procession in Phnom Penh, February 1, 2013.
Cambodian Army soldiers practice how to fire artillery launchers in front of Royal Palace ahead of the funeral for former King Norodom Sihanouk January 31, 2013, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
A woman mourns the late former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk in a funeral procession in Phnom Penh.
A mourner offers prayers to the late Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk ahead of Sihanouk's funeral.
Buddhist monks offer prayers to Cambodian late King Norodom Sihanouk ahead of his cremation in front of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.