MORE than 6,000 extra police, including snipers, bomb disposal experts and motorcycle escorts, have been deployed to protect the crowds of faithful and world leaders converging on the Vatican to mourn Pope John Paul II.

Italian police arrested a suspected member of the Red Brigades terror group today, two days after finding some 220lbs of explosives in an alleged hideout of the group.

Italian police today arrested six alleged Red Brigades terrorists suspected of killing a Labour Ministry consultant in 1999 – the first attack by the left-wing terrorist group in more than a decade, news reports said.