Bradford city centre came to a standstill today as people paid their last respects to PC Sharon Beshenivsky.

The funeral cortege started in Morley Street, where a sea of fluorescent police uniforms lined both sides of the street where PC Beshenivsky was shot dead while investigating a robbery on November 18, last year.

The travel agents and other shops in Morley Street were closed as a mark of respect and other shopkeepers came out of their premises to mark their respect.

Hundreds of officers lined the route through the city centre to Bradford Cathedral where her funeral service took place.

They bowed their heads as the procession passed. A minute's silence was held outside the Tyrls police station where the 38-year-old married officer had been based.

A fleet of five police motorbikes led the funeral procession, followed by two officers on horseback which walked ahead of a hearse drawn by four horses carrying PC Beshenivsky's coffin which was draped in a West Yorkshire Police flag, flowers and her police helmet.

PC Beshenivsky's family followed in six cars.

Her husband, Paul, was in the funeral procession and looked wracked with grief.

They had decided that their two youngest children Lydia, who was four on the day her mother was killed, and Paul, seven, were too young to face the huge publicity generated by today's service.

Outside Bradford Cathedral up to 200 of her colleagues gathered in a guard of honour from the entrance to the cathedral grounds stretching down Church Bank.

Handfuls of emotional members of the public stood nearby as a steady stream of mourners arrived at the entrance to the cathedral.

Among them were high ranking representatives of all police forces across the country.

Up to 600 officers from around the West Yorkshire force were in attendance. All of PC Beshenivksy's colleagues from Bradford Central were paying their respects with colleagues from other areas covering their duties.

Other senior figures who arrived at the cathedral during the next hour included West Yorkshire police authority chairman Mark Burns-Williamson, Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan, who is leading the investigation into Sharon's death, and West Yorkshire police's head of crime Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Gregg.

At about 11.10am, the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Valerie Binney, wearing her chains over her black clothing, and Council leader Margaret Eaton arrived in chauffeur-driven cars.

Minutes earlier the cathedral choir, dressed in crimson gowns emerged from the cathedral and across the grounds for the service.

A single bell tolled from the Cathedral as the cortege made its approach up Church Bank.

The lines of police officers outside the entrance bowed their heads as the procession approached the entrance.

A single drummer walked slowly, his drum covered in black, before the four plaited funeral horses led the hearse into the grounds of the Cathedral.

At the cathedral, PC Teresa Milburn, 37, who was shot in the shoulder when she went to PC Beshenivsky's assistance, briefly broke down as she was overcome with grief as she laid her helmet on the coffin. She had walked behind the hearse from The Tyrlls police station as the cortege passed by.