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STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Leaders from around the world joined close friends and family at a memorial service for Anna Lindh, the Swedish foreign minister, whose killing has sent shock waves through the usually peaceful Scandinavian country.
Amid tight security, 1,300 mourners gathered at Stockholm's City Hall for Friday's emotional 90-minute ceremony. They included Sweden's king and queen, Lindh's policial colleagues and European leaders.
Police and security guards blocked streets, closed canal locks and diverted traffic around Stockholm City Hall. Police helicopters enforced a ban on all private flights over the city's center during the ceremony, which was held at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT).
Lindh, 46, was stabbed nine days ago as she shopped at an upscale department store in the nation's capital. No one has yet been charged with her murder. (Full story)
Inside the hall, Swedish singer Eva Dahlgren began the service with a her song: "An Angel in the Room."
Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson was first to pay tribute to Lindh.
"Anna Lindh is no longer with us. That idea still feels so foreign, so difficult to accept. She lives on so strongly in our memories," he said.
"We have lost her, that is the way it is. And that realization hurts so terribly much," Persson said. "We shall carry the memory of Anna with us as an invisible treasure from which to gather strength."
Chris Patten, the European Commissioner for External Relations, said: "Very few events stop the clock. One such event was the death of Anna Lindh, a woman who loved the world and was loved by the world."
He characterized Lindh as a politician with a common touch who would arrive at inter-governmental meetings with a "knapsack over her shoulder."
She was someone who could "combine public life and private life" while still maintaining high ideals, he said.
"No one was ordinary to Anna, so everyone was capable of being extraordinary," he said. "To be with her was invariably good fun."
Patten said Lindh projected the spirit of Sweden throughout the world. "Anna was Sweden and we hope to our very marrow that Sweden will go on being Anna."
Likening her life to a symphony, he added: "The music will echo and the words and memories will cascade down for years."
Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, who lived and studied in Sweden, called Lindh a diplomat without equal and decried her death.
"We politicians don't always take time to put words to our emotions, but you were an exception," he said in fluent Swedish. "You dared to be sincere."
Papandreou later placed an olive branch in front a large photo of Lindh.
Other dignitaries attending the service included European Commission President Romano Prodi and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
During the service, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen led the Stockholm Chamber Orchestra and conducted soprano Anne Sofie Von Otter in a performance of Sibelius' "The Death of Melisande."
The ceremony comes one day ahead of her funeral, which will be a strictly private affair.
A separate memorial service was held at the store where Lindh was stabbed.
A store spokeswoman said the giant mound of flowers and handwritten cards left in front of the store by grieving Swedes would be moved to City Hall Saturday morning.
Amid tight security, 1,300 mourners gathered at Stockholm's City Hall for Friday's emotional 90-minute ceremony. They included Sweden's king and queen, Lindh's policial colleagues and European leaders.
Police and security guards blocked streets, closed canal locks and diverted traffic around Stockholm City Hall. Police helicopters enforced a ban on all private flights over the city's center during the ceremony, which was held at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT).
Lindh, 46, was stabbed nine days ago as she shopped at an upscale department store in the nation's capital. No one has yet been charged with her murder. (Full story)
Inside the hall, Swedish singer Eva Dahlgren began the service with a her song: "An Angel in the Room."
Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson was first to pay tribute to Lindh.
"Anna Lindh is no longer with us. That idea still feels so foreign, so difficult to accept. She lives on so strongly in our memories," he said.
"We have lost her, that is the way it is. And that realization hurts so terribly much," Persson said. "We shall carry the memory of Anna with us as an invisible treasure from which to gather strength."
Chris Patten, the European Commissioner for External Relations, said: "Very few events stop the clock. One such event was the death of Anna Lindh, a woman who loved the world and was loved by the world."
He characterized Lindh as a politician with a common touch who would arrive at inter-governmental meetings with a "knapsack over her shoulder."
She was someone who could "combine public life and private life" while still maintaining high ideals, he said.
"No one was ordinary to Anna, so everyone was capable of being extraordinary," he said. "To be with her was invariably good fun."
Patten said Lindh projected the spirit of Sweden throughout the world. "Anna was Sweden and we hope to our very marrow that Sweden will go on being Anna."
Likening her life to a symphony, he added: "The music will echo and the words and memories will cascade down for years."
Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, who lived and studied in Sweden, called Lindh a diplomat without equal and decried her death.
"We politicians don't always take time to put words to our emotions, but you were an exception," he said in fluent Swedish. "You dared to be sincere."
Papandreou later placed an olive branch in front a large photo of Lindh.
Other dignitaries attending the service included European Commission President Romano Prodi and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
During the service, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen led the Stockholm Chamber Orchestra and conducted soprano Anne Sofie Von Otter in a performance of Sibelius' "The Death of Melisande."
The ceremony comes one day ahead of her funeral, which will be a strictly private affair.
A separate memorial service was held at the store where Lindh was stabbed.
A store spokeswoman said the giant mound of flowers and handwritten cards left in front of the store by grieving Swedes would be moved to City Hall Saturday morning.
