Singapore, March 29 (IANS): Singapore has lost its founding father Lee Kuan Yew who "lived and breathed Singapore all his life", Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Sunday during the funeral service.

Lee, 91, died on March 23 at the Singapore General Hospital where he was warded for severe pneumonia since February 5.

Lee's casket was brought to the University Cultural Centre (UCC) located at the National University of Singapore (NUS), following a funeral procession which started earlier in the day from Parliament House, the Straits Times reported.

In a moving eulogy to his father, Prime Minister Lee, who is Lee Kuan Yew's eldest son, said: "The light that has guided us all these years has been extinguished."

"This has been a dark week for Singapore," he said.

"From the ashes of separation he built a nation."

In attendance for the state funeral are about 2,200 guests, including foreign dignitaries and Singaporeans from all walks of life.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former US president Bill Clinton, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott are among those present.

Hundreds of onlookers gathered in the streets to bid farewell to the founding father and first prime minister of Singapore.

Over 1.4 million people came to pay their last respects to Lee on Sunday, Tass news agency reported citing a source at the funeral's organising committee.

About 415,000 people came to say their goodbye to the late prime minister in the four days while his body lay in state in parliament's building from March 25 to 28.