Good Friday prayer gets out of hand in locked down Italy

The mayor of an Italian town famous for its bonfire celebrations on Good Friday was forced to apologise after locals turned up to pray with the priest in defiance of a coronavirus lockdown.

The southeastern town of San Marco in Lamis holds an annual ritual that sees huge trunks of hollowed out trees thrown onto waggons and set alight.

The event was cancelled this year because of the lockdown aimed at stemming an outbreak that has officially claimed the lives of more than 19,000 people in Italy since late February.

The local priest intended to broadcast a video of his silent prayer in front of the town's main church -- similar to the livestream prayers now being recorded by Pope Francis in the Vatican.

But mayor Michele Merla said families with children and the elderly showed up and began to pray alongside the town priest.

"I made a mistake. I know," the mayor said in a video posted on Facebook.

"When these people arrived and began to pray on their knees before the Virgin Mary, it was .