Muhammad Ali: How world reacted to the boxer's death

The world mourned the loss of one of the greatest sporting icons on Saturday.

Within seconds of the announcement of Muhammad Ali's death in the early hours of the morning, the boxer's name was trending on social media around the globe.

Presidents, politicians, musicians, athletes and celebrities paid their respects to the former heavyweight champion.

This is the story of how the world reacted to the death of Ali, referred to by many as simply 'The Greatest'.

• Watch some of Ali's most famous interviews

• Ali - an incredible life in pictures

• The greatest human I ever met - what they said about Ali

• iWonder: Muhammad Ali: the ultimate fighter

Death of an icon

The official Twitter account of Muhammad Ali announced his death at 05:42 BST and the tweet was retweeted more than 200,000 times

Ali's children paid tribute to their father including daughter Rasheda

Another daughter, Hana, paid this touching tribute

A president's tribute

US President Barack Obama led the tributes to Ali

Boxing peers

Former heavyweight champion George Foreman lost his titles to Ali in the "The Rumble in the Jungle" in 1974

The boxing community

Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson

British boxer Amir Khan

Britain's former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis

Undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather

Britain's IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua

From one great to another

Brazil's three-time World Cup winner Pele, widely regarded as the greatest footballer of all-time

Celebrities

American talk show host and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey

Actor and former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger

Author JK Rowling

Sports people

Former England captain David Beckham

Former Australian Olympic champion Cathy Freeman

Britain's Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton

Politicians

American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson

Prime minister David Cameron

Musicians

Paul McCartney of the Beatles

American singer Madonna

American popstar Justin Bieber

Out of this world

The American space agency paid this tribute

Better than Superman

This DC comic was published in 1978 and saw Ali fight Superman and win, before teaming up to fight aliens. The book ends with Ali proclaiming "Superman, WE are the greatest!".

A world mourns

One million tweets have been posted on Twitter since the death of boxing legend Muhammad Ali was announced.

The term #RIPMuhammadAli was the top trending term worldwide on Twitter and so far has been used in over 850,000 tweets at a rate of nearly a thousand a minute.

Tweets began being sent at around 05:00 BST and reached a peak at 13:10 BST with 75,000 tweets sent in that hour alone.

Apart from his name, other trending terms include #thegreatest, #ripali, #ripchamp, and #goat (greatest of all time).

The UK and the US were the most tweeted from locations.

This map shows where the term #RIPMuhammadAli has been used in tweets

Sport pays tribute

Caesars Palace in Las Vegas pays tribute outside the hotel

Spectators sit beneath a tribute to boxing legend Muhammad Ali before the international friendly football match between Australia and Greece in Sydney

Hometown hero

Saturday's front page from the newspaper of Ali's home town in Louisville, Kentucky

How the US media reacted

Ali featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated 40 times

The world's media pay tribute

UK media marks Ali's death