Pope Francis’s coffin left the Vatican on a white popemobile following his funeral at St Peter’s Square on Saturday.

Thousands of people lined the streets along the route as the coffin was driven across Rome to its final resting place at the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica.

Tens of thousands of mourners flooded into St Peter’s Square on Saturday for the funeral of Pope Francis, the champion of the poor and the Catholic Church’s first Latin American leader.

Some people waited overnight to be first in the queue for the ceremony, which will be attended by world leaders including US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as royals and red-robed cardinals from across the globe.

The Argentine pontiff, who died on Monday aged 88, sought to steer the centuries-old Church into a more inclusive direction during his 12-year papacy.

Some 250,000 people paid their respects before his coffin during its three days of lying in state at St Peter’s Basilica, and huge numbers gathered from dawn on Friday to attend his final send-off.

“He was not just the pope, he was what the definition of being human is,” said Andrea Ugalde, 39, who flew from Los Angeles to attend Saturday’s mass.

The funeral sets off the first of nine days of official Vatican mourning for Francis, who took over following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013.

After the mourning, cardinals will gather for the conclave to elect a new pope to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.