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AP
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.
Thousands of free tickets for the memorial service, taking place at a major sports centre, were snapped up within half an hour.
REUTERS
REUTERS
AP
AP
The motorcade procession began at about 10:35 local time (14:35 GMT), more than an hour behind schedule, and took the coffin past his childhood home, the Ali Center, the Center for African American Heritage and then down Muhammad Ali Boulevard.
Fans threw flowers at the hearse and rose petals were scattered along the route.
In one neighbourhood, several young men ran alongside the vehicle carrying a placard which read: "Ali is the greatest, thanks 4 all the memories."
A memorial service at the KFC Yum! Centre following the burial is due to begin at 14:00 local time.
Muhammad Ali: 1942-2016
AP
Comedian Billy Crystal will also deliver a eulogy, while sports journalist Bryant Gumbel, the daughter of civil rights activist Malcolm X, Attallah Shabazz, and Ali's wife, Lonnie, and daughters, Maryum and Rasheda, are also expected to speak.
Among those expected to attend the service is King Abdullah of Jordan.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended Thursday's prayer ceremony and had been due at the service, but reports say he has cut short his visit to the US.
The reasons for his departure are not clear, though there are reports of differences with the funeral's organisers.
President Barack Obama will not be there, as he is to attend his eldest daughter Malia's graduation.
But in a video message, he said: "This week we lost an icon. A person who for African Americans, I think, liberated their minds in recognising that they could be proud of who they were."
Muhammad Ali
Born Cassius Marcellus Clay, 17 January 1942
61 fights
over a professional career lasting 21 years
56 wins
including 37 knockouts
- 3 times crowned World Heavyweight Champion
- 1 Light-heavyweight Olympic gold medal
- 31 straight wins before being beaten by Joe Frazier
Getty
White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett - who knew Ali - will represent the president.
Lennox Lewis, a former world heavyweight boxing champion himself, said it was an honour to be a pallbearer and that Ali's memory would never fade.
"The term 'float like a butterfly, sting like a bee' will always be remembered. He is an icon and a legend of boxing," he said.
The other pallbearers are family and friends, along with Will Smith, who portrayed Ali in the 2001 film about the boxer's life.
Abi Ajram, 48, who has made a 4,000-mile trip from London to pay his respects, told PA: "I feel Muhammad Ali deserved the world turning up for him. He was the number one."
The funeral service will be streamed live online.
One sour note was the report that some people were trying to sell the free tickets to the service on the internet.
Ali family spokesman Bob Gunnell said he was "personally disgusted" at attempts to profit from the event.
'Teaching moment'
The funeral events began on Thursday with a Muslim prayer service attended by 14,000 people.
Ali wanted the service, known as a Jenazah, to be "a teaching moment", according to Imam Zaid Shakir, who led it.
American Muslims attending the service and watching on TV said they hoped that the public prayers would help Americans to become more familiar with Islam and its practices.
In 1964, Ali famously converted to Islam, changing his name from Cassius Clay, which he called his "slave name".
He first joined the Nation of Islam, a controversial black separatist movement, before later converting to mainstream Islam.
In his boxing career, he fought a total of 61 times as a professional, losing five times and winning 37 bouts by knockout.
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Soon after retiring, rumours began to circulate about the state of his health.
Parkinson's Syndrome was eventually diagnosed but Ali continued to make public appearances, receiving warm welcomes wherever he travelled.
He lit the Olympic cauldron at the 1996 Games in Atlanta and carried the Olympic flag at the opening ceremony for the 2012 Games in London.
He was crowned "Sportsman of the Century" by Sports Illustrated and "Sports Personality of the Century" by the BBC.
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