The funeral service of British physicist Stephen Hawking was held in Cambridge on Saturday in presence of stars and academics who turned out to pay tribute to the world-famous professor.
Up to 500 family members, friends and colleagues attended the private funeral service at the Great St. Mary's Church, officiated by the Reverend Dr Cally Hammond, Dean of Gonville and Caius College, where Hawking was a fellow for more than 50 years, the BBC reported.
Thousands of citizens and visitors were estimated to have turned up outside the church to pay their respects, watching Hawking's coffin being carried by six porters into the church.
Hawking, who had motor neurone disease, died on March 14, aged 76, at his home in the city.
A legendary figure in the modern history of physics, Hawking is known for his work with black holes and relativity, and authored several bestsellers on science, despite being bound to wheelchair after contracting a motor neurone disease in 1963 at the age of 21.
Hawking's ashes will be interred next to the remains of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin at Westminster Abbey in London on June 15.
