Thousands pay respects to Vietnam's revered General Vo Nguyen Giap

Thousands of mourners gathered outside the Hanoi house of Vietnam's revered General Vo Nguyen Giap on Sunday to pay their last respects to the wildly-popular independence hero following his death. 

Well-wishers carrying bunches of yellow flowers and packets of incense queued for hours to enter the French colonial villa in the heart of the communist country's capital. 

"I never saw this many people come to pay their respects after the death of (Vietnam's founding father) Ho Chi Minh in 1969," retired army colonel Nguyen Van Hieu, 72, told AFP.