Thousands of mourners gathered in Belgrade on Monday for the funeral of Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb commander convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The ceremony was held with state honours at a church in the Serbian capital, where crowds came to view the body of the man found guilty of genocide against Bosniak Muslims during the conflicts of the 1990s.

Mladic died on August 27 in The Hague, Netherlands, while serving a life sentence handed down by the International Criminal Court.

The European Union strongly criticised the decision to hold a state funeral for the convicted war criminal. Marta Kos, the bloc's enlargement commissioner, cancelled a planned visit to Serbia in protest at the event.