A US man, who grew his beard for nearly ten years, has finally shaved it off to welcome the death of Osama bin Laden. High school teacher Gary Weddle, of East Wenatchee, Washington, made an outlandish vow on 11 September 2001 to stay unshaven until the Al Qaeda mastermind was captured or killed. When Mr Weddle made the pledge at the time of the World Trade Centre and Pentagon attacks, he didn’t anticipate that bin Laden’s downfall would eventually come ten years later. Moved by the 9/11 tragedy, he grew the beard to remind his pupils of America’s most deadly terror attack. The beard then began making headlines in 2002, receiving more press coverage on the fifth anniversary of the attacks. As years went by, the teacher started to believe that he would still be wearing the grey 15-inch-long beard a decade after the attacks which killed 3,000 people. Weddle was working in the garden at 7.48pm (US Pacific Standard Time) on Sunday when a work colleague called to tell him that bin Laden was dead.