Italian and Vatican authorities have placed the area around St Peter’s under tight security with drones blocked, snipers on roofs and fighter jets on standby.Further check-points will be activated on Friday night, police said.
Vast crowds of people on Friday morning packed Via della Conciliazione, the wide avenue leading to the Vatican, for the third and final day of the pope’s lying-in-state.
Over 128,000 people have already queued to pay their last respects to Francis, whose coffin will be closed at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) in a ceremony attended by senior cardinals.For a second night in a row, the Vatican kept St Peter’s open past the scheduled hours to accomodate the queues, only closing the doors between 2:30am (0030 GMT) and 5:40am Friday.
“Night is the most intimate moment, the Lord always manifests himself at night,” said Nicoletta Tomassetti, 60, who visited the Basilica in the very early hours of Friday morning.
“It was very emotional, in prayer, I asked the pope for some things and I know he will give them to me,” she told AFP.
The Catholic Church’s first Latin American pope died on Monday aged 88, less than a month after spending weeks in hospital with severe pneumonia.
