A frail Nelson Mandela arrived at Leeds/Bradford Airport today with a cheery wave to the crowd of airport staff, onlookers and the press.

A member of the crew of his Multiflight Falcon 100 had to help him negotiate the steep aircraft steps onto the apron. Then clutching his black overcoat and waving the former South African president made his way to a waiting black Jaguar flanked by a police convoy.

It whisked him away on the first stage of his mission to give thanks to Britons in the north who had shouted for and won his freedom from incarceration and of a nation.

The plane was ten minutes late which meant that Mr Mandela had to cancel his unveiling of a plaque in the domestic arrivals section of Leeds/Bradford Airport, part of improvements which should increase passenger capacity from 1.5 million to 2.5 million a year.

His cavalcade headed for Leeds city centre where he was due to receive the highest honour the city could bestow as an Honorary Freeman of the City.

More than 5,000 people waited to roar their approval at his arrival in the new £12 million Millennium Square.

And echoing yesterday's massive concert welcome in Trafalgar Square, a free two-hour open air show greeted him. It included the whistling, foot-stamping Ladysmith Black Mambazo troupe which accompanied Mandela to his Nobel peace prize award in Oslo in 1993 and sang at his inauguration a year later.

Among those welcoming him in Leeds were expatriate South Africans who yearned for the day they would see him free and triumphant, however frail.

Updated: 11:09 Monday, April 30, 2001