Fans mourn pop star

SEOUL: Grief-stricken fans braved Seoul’s winter cold yesterday to bid farewell to Kim Jong-hyun, the lead singer of top South Korean boy band SHINee, who died in hospital in a suspected suicide.

Weeping, wailing and embracing one another, young men and women dressed in grey and black lined the road as the hearse carrying Kim’s coffin left the hospital. “I am so sad that I cannot even cry. My heart aches so much,” 18-year-old Chinese fan Chen Jialin said. Fellow singers, including SHINee’s Minho and members of bands Super Junior and Girls’ Generation, joined the funeral procession.