St Peter’s bones ‘found’

Bones said to be St Peter’s have been found by chance in a church in Rome during restoration work, nearly 2,000 years after the apostle’s death.

The apparent relics of the saint, who is regarded as the first pope, were found in clay pots in the 1,000-year-old Church of Santa Maria in Cappella, in the district of Trastevere, a medieval warren of cobbled lanes on the banks of the Tiber river.

The bones were discovered when a worker lifted up a marble slab near the medieval altar of the church, which has been closed to the public for 35 years owing to structural problems, and came across two Roman-era pots with inscriptions on their lids.

The remains have been handed to the Vatican for further study. A Vatican spokesman could not be reached for comment.