Pope Francis opens Instagram account following Twitter success

Pope Francis has reportedly set up an account on photo sharing site Instagram and has already been followed by nearly 3,000 users.

Following his success on Twitter in which he has more than 3 million followers, the leader of the Catholic Church opened his Instagram account and subsequently has already got 5,852 fans on the site.

The Mirror reports that photos posted on the site show the pontiff meeting the faithful and leading prayers, adding that news of the Pope's new Instagram account emerged after he visited the town of Assisi in Italy to pray at the shrine of Saint Francis, whose name he took when he was elected pope.

During his visit, the report said that the Pope gave a speech in which he said the Roman Catholic Church needed to rid itself of all 'vanity, arrogance and pride' and humbly serve the poorest in society.

The Vatican also has a profile on Instagram, which has 2,763 followers, the report added.