Vietnam is celebrating the end of the Vietnam War on Wednesday with a grand military parade and an air show 50 years after the fall of Saigon, the event that marked the definitive conclusion of the decades-long conflict.

Thousands of Vietnamese people celebrated the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, in what the country's communist leader said was a "victory of faith".

Chinese, Laotian and Cambodian troops marched behind Vietnamese army formations, including some wearing uniforms similar to what was worn by northern Vietnamese troops during the war. Helicopters carrying the national flag and jets flew over the parade near Independence Palace,