PAKISTANI AUTHORITIES ARE said to be more than halfway done in demolishing the three-storey compound where Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces last may.

Police have been keeping interested spectators and journalists away from the compound in Abbottabad as the bulldozers moved in overnight to tear down the outer walls of the compound before moving in on the building itself.

The leader of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, was killed by US Navy SEALs during an operation on 2 May last when a helicopter entered Pakistan from Afghanistan under the cover of darkness.

The 40-minute raid was hailed in the US as the man widely held responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks was killed after a ten-year manhunt but diplomatic relations with Pakistan have worsened since.

The New York Times explains that the operation to bulldoze the compound involved bulldozers taking down the outer wall around the 3,000 square metre compound before moving in on the main house where bin Laden and his family had been hiding and demolishing three other smaller buildings.

About three-quarters of the house had been destroyed by early this morning. Bulldozers worked under floodlights with trucks carrying away the debris as police and soldiers held back the crowds, BBC News reports.

Bin Laden was said to have lived in the compound with his wives and several children for many years raising questions as to how much Pakistan knew about his presence in the town near the country’s capital of Islamabad.

Residents of the normally sleepy town of Abbottabad were divided on what the government should do with the compound in the aftermath of the raid. Some thought it should be destroyed, but others believed it should be turned into a tourist attraction to help the town earn money, AP reports.

US-Pakistan relations, which were already strained, have worsened since the raid with US officials expressing disbelief that bin Laden could have hidden in the country for so long without the government knowing.

The Pakistani intelligence agency ISI has long been linked to Al Qaeda but there is no evidence that any senior Pakistani officials knew of bin Laden’s whereabouts and the government denies any conspiracy.

- additional reporting from AP