THOUSANDS of people gathered at the Central Mosque in Nelson to pay their last respects to Eritrean asylum seeker Nasser Ahmed.

Around 2,000 people attended the service which was arranged in memory of the 36-year-old Muslim who was found hanged in his home in Railway Street, Nelson, on Tuesday.

He had received a Home Office letter telling his application for asylum had been refused. Nasser, who said he had been jailed in Ethiopia, had fled to this country to avoid the civil war in the province of Eritrea.

Yesterday afternoon around 50 friends and acquaintances of Nasser, of several different religions, joined together at a 15-minute memorial service held outside the drop-in centre at St John's, Southworth.

Representatives from the various voluntary and statutory organisations also attended, including Building Bridges, Empower, Nelson and Colne College and Lancashire County Council.

Once Nasser's coffin had arrived, a short service was held with readings from both the Koran and the Old Testament before the funeral car continued on to the mosque for prayers and on to the cemetery for burial.

Bernard Marsden, a friend of the Pendle asylum seeker, said: "We had the service outside because once Nasser's body had been purified he couldn't be brought in to a Christian church for religious reasons.

"The community with whom Nasser had lived since he came to Nelson joined with others in placing flowers on his coffin. This was a show of common grief between all sections of the community who cared for Nasser and the family he has left behind. It was just nice to share."

Nasser's nephew Ayemen Alsharafi, who came to England from Somalia three and half years ago, travelled to Nelson after his death.

He has already been granted asylum in London.

Ayemen said: "The local Islamic community stood up with us and the people at the Mosque organised everything for us. There were a lot of people for him in the graveyard. He would have liked that if he was here."