Guitarist Manitas de Plata has died at 93

French flamenco guitar legend Manitas de Plata has died in the south of France at the age of 93.

The son of a horse trader, he was born Ricardo Baliardo in a gypsy caravan at Sète in the south of France in 1921.

As a child, he never learned to read and write, but mastered the guitar by the age of nine without ever reading a note of music.

He sold 93 million records and remains France’s biggest selling artist.