A German man jumped a barricade on Wednesday and tried to board Pope Benedict XVI's open-top vehicle before being wrestled to the ground by papal bodyguards in St Peter's Square.
Pope Benedict was apparently oblivious as the man, later described as "mentally unstable," tried to force his way through the guards and succeeded in grabbing onto the back of the vehicle as the pope was riding through a crowd of some 30,000 pilgrims at the start of a weekly audience.
The man wearing a pink shirt, black shorts and a baseball cap, identified as a 27-year-old German national, was soon overpowered by the security detail flanking the vehicle, including a Swiss Guard in the corps' traditional multicolored uniform.
PHOTO: EPA
One bodyguard was taken to an emergency ward with a badly injured ankle, a Vatican source said.
Throughout the incident, the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, standing up behind the driver of the open vehicle, continued to wave to the pilgrims, and the car proceeded at the same stately pace.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi described the man as a "mentally unstable" German national and said he had been taken to a psychiatric ward.
He "was not trying to kill [the pope] but attract attention to himself," Lombardi told reporters.
The man was questioned by Vatican magistrate Gianluigi Marrone and examined by the medical service, which decided to put him in a "specialized protected structure," Lombardi said.
The first known security breach since the pope, himself a German, was elected in April 2005 lasted no more than 15 seconds and occurred at around 10:30am.
A similar incident occurred in June 2002 when a 44-year-old German jumped a security barrier as pope John Paul II was canonizing his contemporary friend Padre Pio, an Italian priest.
"I just wanted to embrace the pope," the interloper said.
Though it was quickly over, the episode recalled the attempt on the life of Pope Benedict's predecessor John Paul II on May 13, 1981, also in St Peter's Square.
Turkish assailant Ali Agca shot and seriously wounded the Polish pope as he was greeting pilgrims, also during a Wednesday general audience.
Ever since, pilgrims wanting to attend the weekly general audience have had to pass through metal detectors.
So while an armed attack is highly unlikely, there is little to prevent an incident such as Wednesday's from happening, Vatican observers say.
"The amazing thing is that it doesn't happen more often," said Vatican expert John Allen of the US-based National Catholic Reporter. "The pope moves with an extremely small security detail."
Speaking from New York, Allen added: "This is obviously a pastoral decision. The pope doesn't want to be separated from the people, or perceived as separated from the people, which means he is probably more exposed to this kind of thing than practically any other major figure you can think of."
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