A car invades the Vatican at high speed and arrests its driver | world

A high-speed car invaded the Vatican on Thursday night (17), according to local authorities. The car passed one of the gates of the city-state and reached a central square of the Apostolic Palace before being arrested.

The Vatican said in a statement that an officer in the Swiss Guard fired a pistol and hit the car. The man, who was described as being in his forties and in an “unsettled state of mind”, had not approached the guest house, where Pope Francis lives.

The incident occurred around 8 p.m. when the man walked through the Porta di Sant’Anne, one of the many entrances separating the Vatican from Rome.

According to the statement, the driver first tried to enter the Vatican, but was refused by the Swiss Guard because he did not have the necessary permits. Then, the man maneuvered the car to increase speed and ran through the gate, as well as a second checkpoint near the back of St. Peter’s Basilica.

A police officer shot and hit the front fender of the car, but the man continued driving at high speed and reached Patio San Damaso. The site is part of the Apostolic Palace where previous popes lived and where Francis still holds official meetings.

The driver left independently [do veículo] “He was stopped and arrested by the gendarmerie,” the Vatican explained, so the man is being held in the city’s prison.

“The man, about 40 years old, was immediately visited by doctors from the Vatican State Directorate of Health and Hygiene, who found a serious case of psychosomatic alteration,” the statement read.