Church
Car rushes through gate in Vatican City – man arrested
Police and soldiers guard a gate of the Vatican. photo
© Andrew Medichini/AP/dpa
Panic in the Vatican. A car crashes through a gate of the small state at high speed. But the all clear comes quickly.
A car drove through a gate in the Vatican State in the evening. The car reached the eastern Sant’Anna entrance gate of the Vatican and broke through the two control gates of the Pontifical Swiss Guard and the Gendarmerie Corps of the Vatican State at high speed, the Holy See said. First, the car approached and was turned away by the Swiss Guard. After a maneuver, it returned and raced into the Vatican.
In an attempt to stop the car, one of the Vatican’s forces fired his handgun at the vehicle’s front tires. Although he hit the vehicle on the left front fender, the car continued to drive. The car, meanwhile, reached the interior behind the gate and the Cortile di San Damaso, the central courtyard of the Apostolic Palace. The driver got out there without being asked and was arrested there by the emergency services, it said.
The approximately 40-year-old man was immediately examined by a doctor – the doctors of the Health Department of the Vatican State found “psychophysical changes” in him. According to the Holy See, the man is now in custody in the Vatican gendarmerie barracks.