Muhammad Ali funeral: Thousands line route for farewell

Well-wishers have been throwing flowers onto the hearse

Thousands have attended a farewell procession for boxing legend Muhammad Ali in his home city of Louisville, in the US state of Kentucky.

Onlookers lining the roadside waved, took photos and chanted "Ali, Ali" as a cortege led by the hearse carrying his coffin drove through the downtown area. The heavyweight champion and rights activist died last Friday aged 74.

The cortege took Ali's body past key sites in his life ahead of an interfaith memorial service. A private burial service for Muhammad Ali's family and friends is now taking place at Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery.

Spectators stepped into the street to touch the flower-strewn hearse as it entered. Actor Will Smith and ex-boxer Lennox Lewis are among the pallbearers, while former President Bill Clinton is to deliver one of the eulogies.