THE GUN USED in an assassination bid on Pope John Paul II went on display today as part of a new exhibition at the soon-to-be saint’s childhood home in Poland.

The former Karol Wojtyla, who will be canonised on 27 April, was born in a house overlooking a basilica in the southern town of Wadowice that has since become a museum and pilgrimage site for his huge following.

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Italy’s justice ministry has loaned the museum the gun, a Browning 9mm, for three years.

The late pontiff nearly died when Turkish extremist Mehmet Ali Agca shot him at close range in 1981 in Saint Peter’s Square, with one bullet going through his abdomen and another narrowly missing his heart.

The multimedia-heavy exhibition at 7 Koscielna Street also features clothes and family photos belonging to the pope, who died in 2005 after a 27-year marathon papacy.

Identified by Italian authorities as an escaped Turkish terrorist, Mehmet Ali Agca, center, is escorted by policemen to Rome's police headquarters Thursday, May 14, 1981. He was charged with attempted murder in the shooting of Pope John Paul II and two women who also were wounded in St. Peter's Square AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

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