VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis's weekly general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday was briefly interrupted by two women from an animal rights group, who shouted and held up signs against bullfighting.

The women walked down an aisle in the Vatican's Paul VI hall holding signs written in Spanish and English saying, "Bullfighting is a sin."

They were quickly escorted out of the venue by security officials.

Francis was holding his first general audience on Wednesday after a month-long summer break during July. The event was taking place in the Vatican's audience hall, instead of St. Peter's Square, because of the high heat in Rome.

The two women wore shirts identifying them as part of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) organisation. It was at least the second protest by persons affiliated with the group at a papal event this year.

In January, two women held a similar protest about bullfighting during a prayer service featuring the pope at Rome's Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

The activists contend that some Catholic priests offer blessings to local bullfighters.

Francis, who has made protection of the environment a signature part of his 11-year papacy, is not known to have commented on the issue. But one of his predecessors, the 16th-century Pope Pius V, did outlaw bullfighting, calling the practice "better suited to demons rather than men."

  - Reuters