Pope Francis’ casket has been brought into St Peters Basilica in a beautiful and moving procession. Tens of thousands of people from all over the world have flocked to the Vatican City to see the Pope lying in state before his funeral on Saturday.
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00:00And Mzoe Ford joins us now from Vatican City.
00:05Mzoe, how long will worshippers have to see the Pope lying in state?
00:10They'll have until midnight tonight and tomorrow night and then until 7pm on Friday night ahead of the Pope's funeral on Saturday to view his body, yes, lying in state.
00:21And we are expecting tens of thousands of people to do that.
00:24Some were queuing before dawn this morning and there are many joining the queue now to go through security, have their bags checked, go through the metal detector and into St Peter's Square.
00:35I was actually in the square a little earlier for that procession of the Pope's casket being brought into St Peter's Basilica.
00:42And it was quite moving, Brianna, the bells, the silence among the crowd, the hymns that were being sung, the chanting as that casket was carried up the steps of St Peter's Basilica and where it will now stay for the next few days lying in state.
01:01And Mzoe, the Vatican has released new details about some of the late Pontiff's final moments.
01:06Yes, his last 24 hours, in fact, he was said to be apprehensive on Easter Sunday before going out onto the balcony of St Peter's Basilica to deliver his Easter message.
01:18The pictures were beamed all around the world of him saying, dear brothers and sisters, happy Easter before his full Easter blessing was read out on his behalf.
01:27He said to his nurse, do you think I can do this?
01:31And the nurse said yes.
01:32Yes. So then after that, he said, take me down to the square.
01:35And that is where we saw pictures of him in the back of the Popemobile for the final time, greeting well wishes, even touching the head of a baby.
01:42That night, no doubt exhausted, he was back in his residence inside the Vatican.
01:47He had dinner. He rested and went to bed.
01:49And it was at 5.30 in the morning on Easter Monday local time, the Vatican says, when he began to feel unwell.
01:55An hour later, he slipped into a coma and then an hour after that, he passed.
02:00But the Vatican stressed in its statement that he did not suffer.