Thousands of Catholic faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square waiting for smoke to pour from a narrow flue on the roof of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel on Wednesday (May 7).

Many said they were excited about the prospect of a new pope, as 133 cardinals sequester inside the chapel to vote on a successor to Pope Francis.

Black smoke - indicating no pope had been selected in the first vote of the conclave - came from the chapel's chimney around 2100 local time (1900GMT), two hours later than expected and more than three hours after the start of the conclave.

It was an hour more than it took for smoke to be seen after the first vote in the 2013 conclave that picked the late Pope Francis.

When a pope is chosen, white smoke will emerge, but this had not been expected on Wednesday - a pontiff has not been picked on the first day of a conclave in modern times.

(Production: Antonio Denti, Marissa Davison, Yesim Dikmen, Ben Dangerfield)