Pope Francis gets trapped in Vatican lift and has to be rescued by fire brigade

Pope delayed for prayers after getting into a spot of bother in an elevator

Pope Francis has said he got stuck in a lift for 25 minutes at the Vatican and had to be rescued by firefighters.

The pope arrived late for his weekly address in St Peter's Square on Sunday, explaining to crowds that he was trapped in a lift for 25 minutes while waiting for firefighters to free him.

"I have to beg your pardon," the smiling pontiff said as he started his address, before explaining that there had been a electrical power problem in the Vatican.

"A round of applause for the fire brigade," he told the crowd.

Following the mishap, he went on to surprise onlookers by announcing plans to promote 13 Roman Catholic bishops to the rank of cardinal next month.

Ten of the new cardinals will be under 80 years-old, and therefore eligible to vote in due course to select his successor.

Unfazed by the lift ordeal, the pope also used his opening address to urge governments to take "political will" to deal with climate change.

Warning of the threats posed by global warming, he said "governments will have the responsibility of showing the political will to take drastic measures" at an upcoming United Nations climate summit later this month.

The pope, who wrote an encyclical on environmental protection in 2015, also called for "thoughtless and harmful" human consumption of the planet's resources to end, urging a less "self centred" attitude towards creation.

"Too many of us act like tyrants with regard to creation," he added.

Pope Francis has been vocal in the growing chorus of calls for governments to heed warnings in a landmark United Nations report late last year that the globe has just over a decade to avert catastrophe.

Additional reporting by Reuters