The Vatican makes the final preparations on Friday to Pope Francis’ funeral as the last of the huge crowds of grieving file through St Pete’s Basilica to see his open coffin.

Many of the 50 state heads and 10 monarchs participating in Saturday’s ceremony at St. Peters Torv, which includes US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, is expected to arrive Friday in Rome.

Italian and Vatican authorities have placed the area around St. Peters under tight security in front of the funeral, with drones blocked, snipers on roofs and fighter jets in standby.

Additional checkpoints are activated on Friday night, police say.

Tens of thousands of people have already stood for hours to pay their last respect to Francis, whose coffin will be closed at 1 p.m. 20.00 in a ceremony that senior cardinals participate in.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Camerlengo, who runs the Vatican’s daily affairs until a new pope is elected, will the chairman of the so -called “ritual for the seal of the coffin”.

The Catholic Church’s first Latin American pope died Monday aged 88, less than a month after spending weeks in the hospital with severe pneumonia.

Veronique Montes-Coulomb, a tourist from Toulouse in France, who participated in the lying state on Thursday at St. Peters, said she had been at the fair on Easter Sunday, Pontiff’s last public excursion.

“We saw the pope pass in ‘PopMobile’; he seemed relatively healthy and we were surprised to hear he was dead on Monday morning,” she said AFP.

The Argentine Pontiff, who had long been suffering from failure, defied doctors’ orders by appearing at Easter, the most important moment of the Catholic calendar.

Compassion is flooded from all over the world for the Jesuit, an energetic reformer who advocated them on the outskirts of society in its 12 years as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

He used his last speech to shine against those who touch “contempt … against the vulnerable, marginalized and migrants”.

At least 130 foreign delegations are expected at his funeral and a flight zone will be in force.

‘Short but intense’

The pope’s coffin was set before St. Peter’s altar for his three days of lying state, with Francis dressed in his papal Westments-a red chasu, white miter and black shoes.

“It was a short but intense moment next to his body,” said Italian Massimo Palo, 63, AFP After his visit.

“He was a pope among his herd, among his people, and I hope the next papacier will be a bit like his,” he added.

Italy’s civil protection agency estimates that “hundreds of thousands” people will fall down on Rome about what was already set to be a busy weekend due to a holiday on Friday.

After the funeral, Francis’ coffin will be run at a wandering pace to be buried in his favorite church, Roma’s papal basilica in Santa Maria Maggiore.

The pontiff was a master of under dogs, and a group of “poor and needy” will be there to welcome the coffin, the Vatican said.

He will be buried in the ground, his simple grave marked with only one word: Franciscus.

People will be able to visit the grave from Sunday morning.

Then all eyes will turn to the process of choosing Francis’ successor.

Cardinals from all over the world have returned to Rome for the funeral and the conclement when a new pontiff is elected.

In the absence of a pope, the Cardinals have met every day to agree on the next steps with another meeting on Friday at. 9am.

They have not yet announced a date for the Conlamer, but it must begin no less than 15 days and no more than 20 days after the death of a pope.

Only those under the age of 80 – currently some 135 cardinals – are eligible to vote.

The Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was second to Francis, is the favorite according to British bookmaker William Hill.

They put him in front of the Philippine Luis Antonio Tagle, the big cities of Archbishop Emeritus in Manila, followed by Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turksson, and Matteo Zuppi, the Archbishop of Bologna.