Barriers Placed Around St. Peter’s Basilica

Toroid

Founding Member
Barriers, police & military vehicles have been placed around St. Peter's Basilica to ward off possible vehicle attacks. St. Peter was one of the twelve apostles and the first pope. According to Christian tradition he was crucified under the rule of Nero Augustus Caesar.
Vatican prepared for Barcelona-style terror attack - Swiss Guard
St. Peter's Basilica - Wikipedia
Saint Peter - Wikipedia
List of popes - Wikipedia
It is perhaps "only a matter of time" before Rome is hit by a Barcelona-style attack but security forces are ready in case the Vatican is targeted, the head the Swiss Guard has said.

Security has been stepped up at religious sites throughout Italy, including at the Vatican, since last year, when a truck driven by a suspected Islamist militant killed 86 people in the French city of Nice.

Barriers and police and army vehicles have been placed around St. Peter's Basilica to make it harder for a vehicle to gather speed in an attack such as the one last week in Barcelona, which killed 13 people.

READ: 'A blind and brutal form of violence': Pope decries terrorism in Easter message

Despite threats from Islamic State, Rome and other Italian cities have so far been spared the kind of vehicle attacks that have also hit Nice, London, and Berlin.

"It could perhaps be just a matter of time before there is such an attack in Rome, but we are prepared," Christoph Graf, the commandant of the Swiss Guard, was quoted as telling the Swiss Catholic website Cath.ch.

Graf, referring to the attack in Barcelona, spoke on the sidelines of a religious ceremony in the Swiss city of Solothurn earlier this week.

Websites linked to Islamic State militants have made threats against Catholic targets in Rome in recent years.
298d7ea473f7c07af7da1af3995af20ac2e51e99-1503681923-59a05d83-620x348.jpg
 
Top