The state funeral of former President Guido de Marco started this afternoon when the coffin, draped in the Maltese flag, was carried out of the Palace and mounted on a gun carriage for the cortège to St John's Co-Cathedral, where the funeral Mass will be said.

The coffin was carried by six army pall bearers in white ceremonial dress with black armbands.

The decorations bestowed on Prof de Marco were carried by two soldiers who marched behind the gun carriage, which was pulled by a Land Rover.

His widow Violet de Marco led the mourners behind the coffin along with their children Gianella, Fiorella and Mario.

Prof de Marco's grandchildren carried bouquets of white flowers.

The AFM band headed the cortège while the parish priest of the Parish of St Dominic walked in front of the coffin - it was at St Dominic's that Prof de Marco was baptised 79 years ago.

Also taking part in the cortège were Knights of Malta in their black cloaks with the eight-pointed Maltese cross.

Several hundred people lined Republic Street under a blazing sun and applauded as the cortège passed by. Some were crying. Others called Guido, Guido.

Among them was a woman who said she remembered how Prof de Marco had been her lawyer when she was hit by a car while aged 14.

A former policeman recalled Prof de Marco as 'a pillar of courage' in the 1970s and 1980s but also as a person who sought reconciliation as minister.