Volleys of fireworks lit up the night sky, Beverley Knight belted out “I am what I am,” and Britain's first Paralympic gold medalist lit the cauldron to open the 2012 London Paralympic Games.

World records tumbled in the pool and on the cycling track on Thursday, as the first day of competition at the London Paralympics got under way and China won the games' first gold medal.

The Paralympic torch was on Wednesday heading to London in an overnight relay through the countryside of southern England, to arrive in the British capital for the games' traditional opening ceremony.

He has described himself as the happiest man alive, yet in 20 years Iraq-born swimmer Ahmed Kelly has risen above extreme hardship to become one of Australia's leading medal hopes at the London Paralympics.

After his trail-blazing Olympic debut, double-amputee Oscar Pistorius is downplaying his chances of dominating at the Paralympics.

G4S, the company at the heart of the London Olympics security debacle, said it would cut 1,100 jobs as it looks to recover 50 million pounds (US$79 million) lost on the Games contract.

When Eva Loeffler volunteered as a ball girl during a rudimentary wheelchair sports tournament for World War II veterans in 1948, she had no idea the contest would grow into the Paralympic Games.

Can an athlete with two prosthetic legs run the 100-meters more easily than an athlete with just one? Is it fair to pit athletes with visual impairments against those with learning difficulties but 20/20 vision?

North Korea is making its debut at the Paralympic Games, a potential sign of change in a country where, according to activists, disabled people have faced enforced isolation and sterilization.

The Olympic rings have disappeared across London, and the Paralympic symbols hoisted in their place. Let the games begin — again.