Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has joined former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Polish leader Lech Walesa to recreate the historic walk across the Berlin Wall on the 20th anniversary of its collapse.

Crowds thronged the areas where the 96-mile wall encircled West Berlin in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Chancellor Merkel, Mr Gorbachev and Mr Walesa walked across the site of the Bornholmer Strasse where the first crowds were filmed crossing freely from the Communist state and the democratic western enclave.