Thousands fill St Peter's square

Gathering beneath a brilliant sky, thousands of pilgrims converged on St Peter’s Square today as cardinals held a Mass before shutting themselves inside the Sistine Chapel to begin their election of a new Pope.

Thousands of people passed through metal detectors to get into St Peter’s Basilica for the midmorning Mass celebrated by the 115 crimson-robed cardinals who will elect the successor to John Paul II, while thousands more followed the service on giant screens set up in the square.