A chorus of “Libya, Libya, Libya” echoed across London’s Knightsbridge.
The Libyan Embassy, situated opposite Hyde Park, seemed a natural place to congregate for the celebrating folk dressed in green, black and red.
“Gaddafi is dead,” one man shouts.
Friends and strangers embrace. Laughter mixes with tears.
Cars passing on the busy road outside sound their horns in solidarity.
"I am here to celebrate Gaddafi’s death,” said Abdurrezafh Mohamed, a 28-year-old student living in Fulham. "He killed our people, he killed our children and he put people in prison for no reason. Today, I feel I can fly.”
“It is a very big day for Libya,” said Abdglrahman Amneina, 27, also a student living in London.
“Back home, here…everyone is just happy. We’ve been coming to the embassy since the beginning of the revolution. It’s an amazing day… I can’t express myself.
“I was at university when I heard the news," he adds. "I read it on my laptop and came straight here. All my family are back home. I spoke to my brother in Tripoli – they’re shooting guns in the streets. They’re extremely happy.”
Salah Maswoud, 31, originally from Brega but now living in Nottingham, thought Gaddafi would be found hiding in the south of Libya, not in Sirte. "But they got him,” he said.
“Now we want them [the NTC] to capture Saif and the other big names. Now we focus on building our country, not fighting.
“There were rumours he [Gaddafi] had been arrested but as soon as we saw the picture on Twitter, we knew it was real,” he adds. “Everyone back home is celebrating, especially in the big cities like Tripoli, Benghazi and Misrata.”
Hakem Sreh came to the embassy to celebrate with his “brothers”. The 24-year-old student, also from Nottingham, said he did not believe it until he saw the pictures. “It is like a dream,” he said. “Today is a really nice day.”
Hakem prefers that Gaddafi has been killed rather than captured alive. He said:
"If he were still alive he might cause some trouble in the future… even if he were under arrest, as he would still have followers. He is out of our minds now. In Libya, everyone is in the street. No one is at home.”
“I am here to celebrate the end of 42-years of Gaddafi’s government,” shouted Farag Safar, 50, from Romford. “Without Gaddafi everyone can look to the future. This morning I phoned my family in Misrata… I wanted to make sure the news was good.
“I had hoped we would capture him alive because people want to know what happened during his regime. Now it’s in the dark. Some people disappeared and some people were killed. Now nobody knows. Now Gaddafi is dead I think Libya can move on. For my family I hope so.”
A chant is started by a group of men waving the Libyan flag.
“It’s a new chant from the revolution,” one of the joyous Libyans tells me.
“It means ‘we want to free the country’… and we did, we did”.