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At St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, a man climbed onto the high altar on Thursday evening and completely stripped naked to protest the war in Ukraine. The incident happened shortly before the closure of St. Peter’s Basilica.

A few surprised visitors filmed the scene with a smartphone. They distributed the video through a Telegram channel.

Both the overseers of the basilica and some gendarmes immediately intervened, dressed the man and accompanied him to the gendarmerie for questioning. He was then handed over to the Italian police.

The perpetrator would be a person suffering from severe depression. He emphasized that he suffered for the Ukrainian children who lost their lives under Russian bombing. The Vatican said the man also inflicted cuts on his body.

Two weeks ago, an apparently confused man drove into the Vatican in his car, causing a major alarm. The car passed through a Papal Swiss Guard checkpoint and reached the front door of the Apostolic Palace, the Holy See said. However, because safety measures were quickly taken and the driver was quickly apprehended, the situation was defused after a short time. (saw/sda/apa)