A car has sped through a gate into the heart of Vatican City at high speed – to the entrance of the Apostolic Palace. The driver was apparently mentally disturbed – and was arrested.
An apparently confused man entered the Vatican in his car, triggering a major alarm. The car raced through a control station in the evening and got to 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.
Driver apparently mentally confused
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.
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 reached the Damasus Court – and thus practically the entrance to the Apostolic Palace. Among other things, state guests are driven up here and taken from there to the Pope.
No direct threat to Pope Francis
As the Vatican announced, the driver then got out of the car and was arrested by the emergency services. In an immediate examination, the doctors of the Health Department of the Vatican State found a “psychophysical disorder”, as it was called. 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.