Man Tries To Jump Into Popemobile

It was a close call for Pope Benedict on Wednesday after a man tried to jump into the back of the popemobile during the pontiff’s general audience in St. Peter’s Square. The individual managed to hold on for a few seconds before being wrestled to the ground by about eight security officers.

Luckily, the pope wasn’t hurt and didn’t even seem to notice that someone was going along for the ride as he just kept waving to the crowd and didn’t even look back. The 27-year-old man from Germany showed signs of “mental imbalance,” said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman and has been taken to a hospital for psychiatric treatment. “His aim was not an attempt on the pope’s life but to attract attention to himself,” Lombardi told reporters.

He vaulted up and over the barricade from the second or third row back. He got as far as the back of the jeep. The car kept moving and Benedict just proceeded with the audience as if nothing had happened.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Vatican has tightened security in St. Peter’s Square when the pope is present. All visitors have to pass by police to get into the square, and sometimes have to go through metal detectors. When the pope uses the popemobile, it’s usually uncovered but when he travels overseas or outside the Vatican, he usually uses one equipped with bulletproof glass.

Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, was shot and seriously wounded in the abdomen on May 13, 1981, in St. Peter’s Square by Mehmet Ali Agca of Turkey. Agca was caught and served his sentence in Italy before being transferred to Turkey.