Sea of mourners surround helicopter as Arafat's body returned

Thousands of mourning Palestinians defied warning shots from security forces and surged forward to surround the helicopter carrying Yasser Arafat’s body when it landed in his West Bank compound today.

The sea of people surrounding the Jordanian helicopter prevented the body from being removed and scuffles broke out.

The body had been flown to Ramallah from a funeral service in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

As the helicopter landed, the crowd cried out ”Welcome, welcome Abu Ammar!” using his nom de guerre. ”Welcome welcome old man!”

The new Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, tried to emerge from the helicopter but the crowd kept him back.

Armed policemen had tried for several hours to keep people back, but mourners, eager to get close to the grave site, pushed their way through. Police scrambled to keep people off the helicopter landing pad.

Minutes earlier, a car bomb blew up just a few miles from the compound, Israel TV reported.

Two Palestinians were seriously wounded in the explosion near Ramallah’s Bir Zeit University, TV reported.