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Mexico and Colombia have held public commemorations for Nobel prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who died on Thursday in Mexico City aged 87, the BBC reported.

The presidents of Colombia and Mexico attended a formal ceremony in Mexico City, where Garcia Marquez lived for more than three decades.

Earlier, residents in his home town of Aracataca in Colombia's Caribbean region held a symbolic funeral.

He was considered the finest writer of the Spanish language since Cervantes.

Garcia Marquez was cremated at a private family ceremony in Mexico City last week.

A funeral cortege took the urn containing his ashes from his house to the historic centre of the Mexican capital, where the memorial ceremony was held.

It was placed on the podium of the majestic Palace of Fine Arts, which is where Mexico pays tribute to its late artistic icons.

The ornate cultural venue was adorned with yellow flowers, the author's favourite, and musicians also performed some of his favourite pieces.

Thousands of admirers filed past the urn, and joined the author's wife, Mercedes Barcha, and sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo, to say their goodbyes.

The event was also attended by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and his Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos.