Pope Francis has begged forgiveness after arriving late for his weekly prayer in St Peter’s Square, after getting stuck in a lift in the Vatican.

The 82-year-old pontiff said he had been trapped in the lift for 25 minutes because of a power outage.

He was eventually freed by firefighters.

“I have to beg your pardon,” the pontiff said as he began his address.

Apparently referring to electric power, Francis said a “drop in tension” caused the lift to block.

“Thank God the fire department came.”

Pope Francis was 7 minutes late to his Sunday mass after getting stuck in an elevator pic.twitter.com/LzFnwAoOJy

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He said Holy See firefighters rescued him and asked the people in the square to applaud them.

“Thank goodness, the firefighters arrived, and I thank them so much, and after 25 minutes of work they managed to get it started again,” he said.

Thousands had gathered in St Peter’s Square for the pontiff’s weekly address, which is normally kickstarted by the window of the Apostolic Palace being thrown open on the stroke of midday. When that failed to happen, there was concern among the masses that health reasons might explain the tardiness.

In his address, the Pope announced that he would create 10 new Roman Catholic cardinals next month.