Alfie Evans latest: Father of terminally ill baby kisses the Pope's hand as he begs him to save his son

The father of terminally ill baby Alfie Evans has kissed the hand of the Pope and begged him to "save our son".

Tom Evans posted on Facebook that he flew to Rome on Tuesday evening and met Pope Francis the following morning.

Posting photos of himself kissing the pontificate's hand, he wrote: "Your holiness save our son".

Alfie, who has been diagnosed with a rare undiagnosed degenerative neurological condition, has been at the centre of a legal battle over his life-support treatment.

Mr Evans added in the social media post: “No sleep! No food! No tie! No care!!!

“Last night I jumped on a plane and come to Vatican Rome to meet the pope 1 hour ago and here we are.

“Alfie we will do everything for you. Your [sic] not dying so we won’t allow your [sic] life to be taken.”

During his general audience after the meeting, the Pope led the crowd in a moment of silent prayer for Alfie.

At the beginning of April, Francis tweeted his support for the youngster, posting: "It is my sincere hope that everything necessary may be done in order to continue compassionately accompanying little Alfie Evans, and that the deep suffering of his parents may be heard.

"I am praying for Alfie, for his family and for all who are involved."

Earlier this week Francis said: "It's our duty to do everything to care for life."

The parents of 23-month-old Aflie made a second application to the Supreme Court earlier this week after losing a fight in the Court of Appeal.

A lawyer representing Mr Evans, 21, and Kate James, 20, had asked Court of Appeal judges on Monday to rule that Alfie should be allowed to travel to a foreign hospital for treatment.

Judges have heard that Alfie, born on May 9 2016, is in a semi-vegetative state and has a degenerative neurological condition doctors have not definitively diagnosed.

Mr Justice Hayden said flying Alfie to a foreign hospital would be wrong and pointless and ruled that that doctors could stop providing life-support treatment.

The couple have lost fights in the High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.