2023-05-19 09:38:23
Man breaks through gate and races into the Vatican
Driver breaches checkpoint and is arrested
A 40-year-old driver broke through the security gates of the Vatican at high speed and, despite being shot, got into the center. There he got out of the vehicle and was immediately arrested. The man shows signs of a serious mental disorder.
Mission for the Swiss Guard: A man entered the Vatican in a car through a gate in the evening. The forces fired a shot. The man was arrested.
EAn apparently confused man broke into the Vatican with his car, triggering a major alarm. The car raced through a control station on Thursday evening and reached the front door of the Apostolic Palace, the Holy See said. However, since safety measures were taken quickly and the driver was quickly arrested, the situation was defused after a short time.
The man, who is said to be around 40 years old, initially drove his car to the open Sant’Anna entrance gate near St. Peter’s Square and was turned away from there. Then he reversed the car and at high speed overcame the two checkpoints of the Pontifical Swiss Guard and the Gendarmerie Corps of the Vatican State.
An Italian police car in front of St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican
Those: dpa/Andrew Medichini
A gendarme wanted to stop the car and shot the front tires with a pistol, but only hit the front left fender. The car didn’t stop, but pushed further into the Vatican. Ultimately, he got as far as the Damasus Court – and thus practically as far as the entrance to the Apostolic Palace. Among other things, state guests are driven up here and taken from there to the Pope.
Doctors assume a “psychophysical disorder”.
As the Vatican announced, the driver then got out of the car and was arrested by the emergency services. During an immediate examination, doctors at the Vatican State Health Department diagnosed what they called a “psychophysical disorder”. The man – according to the Ansa news agency, an Italian – was taken into custody in the Vatican gendarmerie barracks in the evening.
Pope Francis should never have been in any danger: he lives on the other side of the Vatican in the Santa Marta guest house, while former heads of the Catholic Church still resided in their private apartments in the Apostolic Palace.
After the car incident, a radio alarm was sounded and security guards closed an access gate that gives access to the back of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican Gardens and Santa Marta Square with the guest house there.
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