China held one of world's biggest military parades - what are some of the others?

China's largest ever military parade has taken place as President Xi Jinping showcased his country's military prowess in front of tens of thousands of spectators.

Russian president Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were among the 26 other world leaders watching in Beijing as tens of thousands of troops, armoured vehicles, tanks and a new intercontinental ballistic missile paraded on Tiananmen Square.

The highly choreographed spectacle was a "Victory Day" event, marking 80 years since Japan's defeat at the end of the Second World War.

Leaders from the US, Western Europe, Japan and India were not present, and countries such as South Korea and Singapore sent lower-level officials. The only Western leaders in attendance were Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico and Serbia's Aleksandar Vucic.

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The parade lasted almost two hours and is estimated to have cost China around $5bn (£3.75bn), according to the Taiwanese government.

But how did it compare with other huge military parades across the world? Here's a look at some of the most notable ones in modern history.

Parades to mark founding of communist China

Wednesday's event was the first major military parade in China since 2019, when it held a huge event to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of communist China.

That parade - one of many throughout China's history - saw 15,000 troops march in central Beijing while more than 160 aircraft flew overhead.

The 60th anniversary in 2009 was also massive - it saw around 200,000 citizens watch as more than 100,000 personnel marched to show their patriotism.

Victory Day parades in Russia

Throughout history, Russia has made pageantry of its military in attempts to show the country's strengths.

The Soviet Union's Victory Day parade in Red Square to mark Germany's WW2 defeat in 1945 is widely believed to be the largest military parade ever staged, with historians saying it had some 40,000 troops and 1,800 armoured vehicles.

The tradition has continued in the decades since, with Mr Putin putting together sizeable processions of his own on Red Square, including one in May this year to mark the 80th anniversary.

Kim Jong Un's weapon-heavy parades in North Korea

The North Korean dictator, much like his Chinese and Russian counterparts, has made military spectacles a staple of his reign.

Many of them have come on the country's founding anniversaries in September, and have even included Mr Kim's military showing off nuclear missile launchers.

Washington's Gulf War Victory parade

President George HW Bush oversaw a parade with around 8,000 troops marching in the US capital to mark the end of the Gulf War in 1991.

Tanks were also on display as hundreds of thousands of people came to celebrate the ousting of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's army from Kuwait.

It wasn't until June this year that a military parade of such scale took place in the US again, with Donald Trump having around 6,600 soldiers and 150 vehicles take to the streets of Washington DC on his 79th birthday, to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States Army.

Bastille Day in Paris

Bastille Day parades - which mark the storming of the Bastille prison at the start of the French revolution in 1789 - tend to be the biggest Europe has to offer.

They take place on 14 July every year along Champs-Elysées road in Paris.

Parades in Nazi Germany

There were plenty of enormous military events during Adolf Hitler's reign before and during the Second World War.

One of the biggest was a parade on the dictator's 49th birthday - 20 April 1938 - when he had nearly 10,000 troops gather in central Berlin.

It was to mark the annexing of his native Austria into the German Reich.