Vatican gendarmes shot at a vehicle’s tires Thursday after an unidentified man in a “serious state of psychophysical alteration” rushed through a Vatican gate and into a palace courtyard, where authorities arrested him.

The Holy See said in a news release that authorities arrested the man, who is in his 40s, and immediately subjected him to a visit by the doctors of the Directorate of Health and Hygiene of the Vatican City State.

“Currently, the person is in a prison cell in the new premises of the Gendarmerie Barracks, at the disposal of the Judicial Authority,” according to the statement obtained by The National Catholic Registry.

The driver pushed through the Santa Anna entrance around 8 p.m., after which a guard fired his gun at the vehicle’s tires, hitting the left front fender until the man exited the vehicle at the San Damasco Courtyard of the Apostolic Palace and was placed under arrest by the Gendarmerie Corps, the press office said.

Vatican officials said authorities initially turned away the man when he first approached the gate to enter the Vatican City State in Rome.

“Regardless of the indications provided to him by the Pontifical Swiss Guard, which prevented him from entering the State without the relative authorizations, he temporarily left the entrance and, after having maneuvered, returned at high speed, forcing the two control gates, of the Swiss Guard and of the Gendarmerie of the Vatican City State,” the press office said.

It was unclear if Pope Francis was near the incident, The Associated Press reported, noting that the pope lives on the other side of Vatican City at the Santa Marta hotel, where he would typically be having dinner at that time of night.

Vatican authorities reportedly shut the main gate in front of Francis’ hotel as soon as the gendarmes sounded the alarm for an incursion, according to The Associated Press.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP

In 2009, a woman was removed by Vatican guards after she breached a barrier and grabbed the vestments of Pope Benedict XVI while he walked down the main aisle of the church during a Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica.

The pope did not suffer any injuries in the 2009 incident and resumed the service after attendants helped him stand up, but the disturbance caused a cardinal walking in the procession to break his hip.

Biden administration officials are reportedly walking back claims that they made earlier this month when they claimed that they had killed a major figure in the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda.

The move by U.S. officials comes after the slain man’s family and others who knew him claimed that the father of 10, a former bricklayer, had no ties to terrorism and was tending to his sheep when he was hit by a Hellfire missile in Syria.

U.S. officials claimed shortly after the strike that the Predator drone had taken out a “senior Al Qaeda leader” — even though they did not provide proof or name the suspect.

The Washington Post reported that 56-year-old Lotfi Hassan Misto was the person killed in the strike.

“We are no longer confident we killed a senior AQ official,” a U.S. official told the Post.

Another U.S. official added, “though we believe the strike did not kill the original target, we believe the person to be al-Qaeda.”

The Pentagon has been tight lipped about the strike and has not released any information about who their target was, if the target escaped, and what information they had indicating that Misto was an al-Qaeda terrorist.

“Centcom takes all such allegations seriously and is investigating to determine whether or not the action may have unintentionally resulted in harm to civilians,” said Michael Lawhorn, a spokesman for Central Command.

The incident is reminiscent of a drone strike the Biden administration made in August 2021 during President Joe Biden’s disastrous pullout from Afghanistan where the administration claimed to have “conducted a self-defense unmanned over-the-horizon airstrike today on a vehicle in Kabul, eliminating an imminent ISIS-K threat to Hamad Karzai International airport.”

“We are confident we successfully hit the target,” the administration claimed. “Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material.”

However, the administration admitted a couple of weeks later that the drone strike was a tragic mistake that killed 10 civilians, including seven children.

This report has been updated to include additional information.