McVeigh executed as victims' relatives look on

His own epitaph: 'I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.'

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McVeigh 'feels the victor'

Vultures on the high ground

Killing will hinder the search for McVeigh's helpers

The blue-eyed boy who fled into extremism

Leading article: The taking of life is wrong, even if done by the state

Andreas Whittam Smith: Even the Oklahoma bomber should not be executed

Timothy McVeigh was killed by lethal injection today, watched by hundreds of relatives of the Oklahoma City bomb. Pro and anti death penalty protestors were kept apart outside the Terre Haute prison in Indiana as the execution took place.

The warden, Harley Lappin, said McVeigh had been pronounced dead at 7.14am local time (1.14pm BST). Mr Lappin said McVeigh had co-operated throughout.The body would be released to his relatives.

Although he made no verbal statement, McVeigh released a poem written out in his own hand. He chose the poem Invictus, by 19th century poet William Ernest Henley, as his final words. Its last two lines are: "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul."

President George W. Bush said: "The families of the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing have been given not vengeance, but justice."

Byron Pitts of CBS news was one of the media witnesses to the execution. He said that McVeigh died with his eyes open, having intentionally made eye contact with those behind the glass screens just before he died.

Susan Carlson, a TV journalist from Chicago, said that there had almost been a sense of pride as McVeigh looked deliberately at each of his witnesses in turn.

McVeigh passed his final hours with simple indulgences: television, sleep and pints of ice cream. And then he ate his last meal.

While the intricate and well-practiced plans for his execution unfolded, those close to the bomber said he continued to believe the 1995 blast that killed 168 people was a military action brought on by an overreaching federal government.

In Oklahoma City, about 300 survivors and victims' relatives watched a closed–circuit television broadcast of the execution, from Terre Haute in a feed encrypted to guard against copying. A hitch with the feed caused a slight delay to the execution.

Amnesty International condemned the killing, releasing a statement saying: "By executing the first federal death row prisoner in nearly four decades, the USA has allowed vengeance to triumph over justice and distanced itself yet further from the aspirations of of the international community."