At Mexico-US border, pope decries migrant 'tragedy'

Pope Francis on Wednesday decried the "human tragedy" of migrants fleeing violence worldwide during a huge mass on Mexico's border with the United States, where thousands have died while crossing the desert.

In a highly symbolic gesture, the pope climbed a ramp facing the Rio Grande that separates Mexico's Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas, laid flowers under a black cross and blessed hundreds of migrants on the American side who waved at him.

Francis then celebrated mass with more than 300,000 Catholic faithful on the Juarez side of the border, with tens of thousands more watching it on a giant screen in an El Paso stadium.