China mourns former president Jiang Zemin

SHANGHAI: Mobile apps and state media websites turned black-and-white, flags on some government buildings in Beijing were at half-mast, and flowers were laid on Thursday as China mourned the death of former leader Jiang Zemin.

State media said Jiang had died of leukaemia and multiple organ failure in Shanghai on Wednesday at the age of 96, and that funeral preparations had begun. Floral tributes were laid in Jiang´s hometown of Yangzhou and nearby Shanghai, where police were deployed in force on Thursday morning around the intersections near the hospital where he was rumoured to have died, AFP reporters saw.