In protest against the war in Ukraine, a man climbed onto the high altar and stripped. The basilica guards and gendarmes immediately intervened.
A man climbed the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday night and stripped down to protest the war in Ukraine. The incident happened shortly before the closure of St. Peter’s Basilica. Some stunned visitors filmed the scene with a smartphone and shared the video via a Telegram channel.
Both the basilica supervisors and some gendarmes immediately intervened, dressed the man and accompanied him to the gendarmerie for identification and first interrogation. He was then handed over to the Italian police. The perpetrator is said to be a person suffering from severe depression. He emphasized that he suffered for the Ukrainian children who lost their lives under Russian bombing.
The man wore an inscription painted on his back calling for the rescue of children in Ukraine. The Vatican said the man also had self-inflicted cuts on his body.
Car crashed in the Vatican
Two weeks earlier, a car had crashed into a gate in Vatican City. The car reached the Sant’Anna eastern entrance gate of the Vatican and drove through the two control gates of the Pontifical Swiss Guard and the Vatican State Gendarmerie Corps at high speed. It was rejected by the Swiss Guard.
After a maneuver, he turned and ran towards the Vatican. In an attempt to stop the car, one of the Vatican forces fired its weapon into the vehicle’s front tires. Although he hit the left front fender, the car continued to drive. The car reached the interior behind the gate and the Cortile di San Damaso, the central courtyard of the Apostolic Palace. The driver left without being asked and was detained there by emergency services.
(APA)