More than 150,000 people from all over the world have viewed Pope Francis’s body as the Vatican makes the final preparations for his funeral on Saturday, an event that will be attended by 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs.
St Peter’s Basilica closed at 2.30am on Friday and reopened three hours later to accommodate the last of the huge crowds of mourners who had waited patiently to pay their respects to Francis, who died at the age of 88 on Monday after a stroke. The basilica is scheduled to close at 7pm and the pope’s coffin will be sealed at 8pm in a private ceremony attended by senior cardinals.
