The driver made it into the San Damaso Courtyard of the Apostolic Palace (Picture: Getty)
A man with suspected psychiatric problems managed to speed past Swiss Guards into the Vatican before being apprehended by police.
Vatican gendarmes fired at the vehicle’s front tyres in a bid to stop it rushing the gate but the driver was able to plough on into the San Damaso Courtyard of the Apostolic Palace.
The driver, said to be about 40 years old and in a ‘serious state of psychophysical alteration’ was arrested as soon as he stepped foot onto the cobbled stones. He is being held in the Vatican barracks.
It wasn’t clear if Pope Francis was anywhere near the incident, which occurred after 8pm at the Santa Anna gate, one of the main entrances to the Vatican City State in the heart of Rome.
Francis lives on the other side of Vatican City at the Santa Marta hotel, where at that hour he would normally be having dinner and retiring to his room.
The Vatican statement said that as soon as the gendarmes sounded the alarm of an incursion, the main gate blocking access to the piazza in front of Francis’ hotel was shut.
The faithful gather in Saint Peter’s Square during the Pope’s Regina Coeli prayer at the window of the Apostolic Palace in 2020 (Picture: EPA)
It was a rare incursion into the city state, much of which is off limits to the general public, especially at night.
While visitors can access St Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museums during business hours, and people with doctors’ prescriptions can go to the Vatican pharmacy, permission is required to get into other buildings in the enclave.
The Apostolic Palace, which houses the papal apartments, key reception rooms, the Vatican archives and offices, is guarded around the clock by Swiss Guards and gendarmes who man various checkpoints.
It’s not the first time that someone with apparent psychiatric problems caused a disturbance at the Vatican.
During a 2009 Christmas Eve Mass, a woman jumped the barricade of St Peter’s Basilica and tried to attack Pope Benedict XVI.
He was not harmed, though a cardinal walking in the procession broke his hip in the ruckus.
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It wasn’t clear if Pope Francis was anywhere near the incident, which occurred after 8pm.
