A man has been detained after attempting to jump into the Popemobile in St Peter's Square, Rome.

The man, wearing a baseball cap, leapt out of the crowd and over a wooden barricade as the Pope passed by to start his weekly general audience for some 40,000 people.

He only managed to touch the vehicle before being wrestled to the ground by Vatican security guards.

He was taken in for questioning and was due to be handed over to Italian police.

The Pope, who was standing on the open jeep facing forward, did not see the man trying to get on the vehicle. Sources at the Vatican said the man was unarmed and did not appear to have posed a threat to the Pope.

Pope Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, was shot and nearly killed in the same square by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca in May 1981.

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