The 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War is being commemorated with a military parade through the streets of Ho Chi Minh City.

On April 30, 1975, Ho Chi Minh City – which was then called Saigon and was the capital of South Vietnam – was captured by communist troops from the North.

North Vietnam’s victory ended the war in which at least three million Vietnamese died, as well as 58,000 US soldiers.

The re-unification process was completed in 1976.

Regiments of soldiers in dress uniform and elaborate floats are slowly making their way through city streets.

Army Lt-Gen Nguyen Quoc Khanh told crowds: “The April 30 victory was a golden turning point for the Vietnamese people.”

Forty years ago North Vietnam’s tanks smashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace, the final assault on the US-backed South.

The North’s victory reunited Vietnam under the communist government after decades of war.

Vietnam War was very divisive in the US as well, as it was the first to be extensively covered by the Western media. It was also the first to be lost by a modern global superpower.