Libyan rebels now control the fortified Bab al-Aziziyah compound the former stronghold of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The anti-Gaddafi forces swarmed over the compound's buildings firing in the air and raising the rebel flag on the roof of one of them.
One tore a poster of Gaddafi in half for the benefit of foreign TV cameras, while others tried to pull down a statue of a hand crushing a fighter jet that has provided the backdrop to many of Gaddafi's sometimes eccentric speeches.