Author Gabriel Garcia Marquez dies

Nobel prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez has died in Mexico aged 87.

A spokeswoman for the family announced the news on Twitter.

The cause of his death has not been released.

He was recently hospitalized for a lung and urinary tract infection in Mexico City.

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos has paid tribute to the renowned author on Twitter.

He wrote, "One Hundred Years of Solitude and sadness for the death of the greatest Colombian of all time."

Garcia Marquez has been considered one of the greatest Spanish-language authors.

His masterpiece of magic realism, One Hundred Years of Solitude, has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.

Garcia Marquez's other novels include Love in the Time of Cholera, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and The General in His Labyrinth.