A Vatican fire officer jumped over a railing at the top of St Peter's Basilica today to rescue a man who had been demanding that Pope John Paul start a lottery to help orphans.
The man had stayed on the top of the dome for more than two hours before a member of the fire brigades jumped over the railing and tied a rope around the man, bringing him to safety.
Live television pictures showed the man on the high part of the dome. He was apparently linked to the railing with a rope. Vatican officials including a bishop tried to convince the man to return over the railing, but he refused to grab at what appeared to be a safety sling thrown to him by Vatican fire brigades.
The man climbed onto the dome from a popular tourists' perch at the top of St. Peter's, which is reached from an inside stairway.