VATICAN CITY, March 26: A man who said he had a letter for Pope John Paul threatened to throw himself from the cupola of St Peter’s basilica in the Vatican on Saturday before firefighters dragged him to safety. The 46-year-old man has a history of “mental problems and has been hospitalized in mental institutions in the past,” said a Vatican spokesman, Father Ciro Benedettini. The ANSA news agency reported that the man, whom it identified only as Rino S., had killed the mayor of his local town in the province of Abruzzo in 1984. The swift action by the firemen brought to an end a drama thta had unfolded for more than two hours on the roof of the world’s biggest church, the centrepiece for the Roman Catholic Church’s Easter Holy Week celebrations.

Tourists and pilgrims watched in horror as the tiny figures struggled on the sloping roof of the cupola.

The letter to the pope contained a plea for funds to build an orphanage. —AFP