The London 2012 Paralympics began on Wednesday with a vibrant opening ceremony led by Stephen Hawking that paid tribute to human endeavour, enlightenment and the quest to understand the universe.
Paralympians soared through the air above the 80,000-seater Olympic Stadium while Hawking, the world’s most famous living scientist, urged people to look to the stars for inspiration.
In a spectacular finish, a British marine who lost both his legs in an explosion in Afghanistan brought the flame into the stadium on a zip wire from the Orbit tower.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II declared the Games open after a joyous athletes’ parade that saw competitors from a record 165 nations take their bow.
The show began with a spectacular flypast as a plane, lit electric blue and trailing golden sparks from its wings, circled overhead.
British theoretical physicist Hawking, paralysed and in a wheelchair much of his life due to a rare form of motor neuron disease, kicked off the show by speaking of the challenge of working out how the universe works.