George Floyd funeral in Houston to finish series of US memorials

Mourners will be able to view George Floyd’s coffin in his home town of Houston in Texas – the final stop of a series of memorials in his honour.

Hundreds had lined up outside a church in Houston for a final public viewing yesterday as his death two weeks ago at the hands of police continued whipping protesters, leaders and cities around the world into action over demands to address racial injustice and police brutality.

As the doors opened at the Fountain of Praise church, where Mr Floyd spent most of his life, he was lying in an open gold-coloured casket, dressed in a brown suit and blue tie.

Mourners,manywearing masks and T-shirts with the words “I Can’t Breathe”, stood six feet apart as they paused briefly to view the casket.

Mr Floyd’s funeral is today, followed by burial at Houston Memorial Gardens cemetery in suburban Pearland.

He died on 25 May after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after Mr Floyd stopped responding.

His death has inspired international protests and drawn new attention to the treatment of African Americans by police and the criminal justice system in t he US.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden plans to travel to Houston to meet Mr Floyd’s family and will provide a video message for the funeral service.

A Biden aide on Sunday described the plans of the former vice-president, but they did not include attending the service. Previous memorials have taken place in Minneapolis and Raeford, North Carolina, near where Mr Floyd was born.