More than 250,000 jubilant fans massed at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate on Tuesday to welcome the World Cup winners and new national heroes bringing home football’s top prize for the first time to a reunified Germany.

The flag-waving crowd erupted in applause after screens showed the flight bringing the triumphant players to the German capital from Rio de Janeiro touch down shortly after 0800 GMT.

Crowds began massing in central Berlin before dawn and thousands more supporters gathered on a viewing platform under warm summer sunshine at Tegel airport to meet the plane, a Lufthansa jet rebranded for the occassion “Fanhansa” on one side and “Victors’ Plane” on the other.