JACKSON FANS GATHER NEAR HOSPITAL

Tracy Drendella, 36, from Los Angeles, said: "Michael is the greatest, and then they said he was dead and I was just like in shock. I feel like a part of me has died a little bit.

"I knew people would be down here paying their respects and I just wanted to show mine and support him."

She added: "He had a very troubled life. There was a lot of stuff that happened to him, there was a lot of choices he made, and I know he wasn't very well loved in the US anymore because of all the trials and everything."

Another fan, Frances Davis, 66, was lighting candles outside the hospital.

She said: "I was at Macy's today and all at once they kept saying 'Michael's dead, Michael's dead'.

"I dropped everything and just came running out here. He was the greatest, he was the best singer, the best dancer and everybody loved him, everybody.

"He was a very good, gentle-talking man. He was beautiful, he was one of the greatest, that is all I can say."

Stef Casteel, 28, who described himself as "a superfan", said: "His music is going to live on forever. His legacy lives on beyond music and I think people are going to know Michael Jackson for centuries and centuries.

"He's an icon."