Crocodile hunter Irwin given private funeral

SYDNEY: Australian wildlife television presenter Steve Irwin was buried at his Queensland zoo in a private funeral that was attended by family and close friends on Friday.

Family members of Irwin, killed six days ago by a sting ray barb to his chest, had overturned government offers of a state funeral for a simple, private burial.

"The council gave the family permission to bury Steve at the zoo and we think they're going to erect a monument there so visitors can continue to pay their respects," a close friend was quoted as saying by the Sunday Mail.

The paper said that the family also planned to hold a public memorial service soon for the daredevil TV star, who died while diving on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Irwin, 44, the star of 'Crocodile Hunter' documentaries on Discovery channel had lived at the zoo in Beerwah, on the Sunshine Coast, with his American-born wife Terri and their two children, two-year-old Robert and Bindi, eight.