Moments of panic in the Vatican late this Thursday. A driver has accelerated violently to skip the two police controls necessary to access within the State Vatican City, maneuvering at high speed. The Vatican gendarmerie had to fire at the vehicle, but they have not been able to stop it, and the security operation has blocked access to the area where the Pope was.
The driver has been arrested at the gates of the Apostolic Palace, current residence of the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and former access to the apartment of the pontiffs.
“Tonight, after 8:00 p.m., a car approached the Vatican access called ‘Porta Santa Anna’,” explains the statement from the Holy See press office. According to the first reconstruction, the driver avoided stopping when a Swiss guard asked him for access permission. Then, “it has temporarily left that access, and has maneuvered to re-enter at high speed, so that it has managed to force the two existing checkpoints, that of the Swiss Guard and that of the Gendarmerie Corps,” the statement continues. As reconstructed by the newspaper “LA NACIÓN”, the subject claimed to have had visions of the devil, about which he wanted to inform the Pope.
The service agent has had good reflexes and “has fired with a pistol in the direction of the front tires of the vehicle. Although he has caught up with the car on the left front wing, the car has continued to drive ».
Immediately the smallest state in the world has entered into an alarm situation, and the agents have closed the so-called “Door of the Mint, which allows access to the back of the Basilica of San Pedro, the Vatican gardens and the square de Santa Marta”, where the residence of Pope Francis is located.
By blocking this access, the car has been forced to follow the tortuous road to the “Cortile di San Damaso”, a central courtyard with no exit, which marks the official access to the Vatican Apostolic Palace, papal residence until the pontificate of Francis, and Current residence of the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. It is not known if the cardinal was in his house at the time.
There, “the driver got off on his own foot and was stopped and placed under arrest by the Gendarmerie Corps,” according to the Vatican. He is a man around 40 years old. As the statement explains, he “was immediately examined by doctors from Vatican City, who found that he was in a serious state of psychophysical disturbance.”
The driver will spend this Thursday night in the dungeon of the Gendarmerie, and will be brought to justice in the next few hours.
Despite the fact that the driver of the vehicle has not managed to get close to the Pope or his number two, it is the most serious violation of Vatican security in recent years. The most serious so far was a mysterious arson attack that took place a few years ago in the parking lot of the Vatican Gardens.
