*Breaking:* Man tries to jump on Popemobile

It happened this morning at the Wednesday audience. The Pope is safe.

The story:

(06/06/2007) A man tried to jump into the Pope Benedict XVI’s popemobile today, but was quickly overpowered by bodyguards and hauled to the ground.

The incident, which immediately recalled the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981, occurred at the beginning of the Pope's weekly general audience in St Peter's Square in the Vatican. Pope Benedict did not seem to notice the man and continued his audience as usual.

A Vatican official said the man, who was wearing a pink t-shirt, black shorts, a cap and sunglasses, managed to reach the back of the Pope's open-topped vehicle before the pontiff's team of eight guards wrestled him to the ground. He is being questioned by Vatican police.

The video:


Now, let's all a) say a quick prayer for the pope's continued safety and b) thank God the Vatican security was vigilant this time. The incident still shows how vulnerable the pope is to attack.

More from the AP:

The man was a 27-year-old German who showed signs of "mental imbalance," said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman.

"His aim was not an attempt on the pope's life but to attract attention to himself," Lombardi told reporters.

The man, whom Lombardi declined to identify, was interrogated by Vatican police and then taken to a hospital for psyciatric treatment, he said.

The man wore a pink T-shirt and dark shorts, a beige baseball cap and sunglasses. He vaulted up and over the barricade from the second or third row back. He got as far as the back of the jeep, holding onto it for a few seconds, before being wrestled to the ground.

The jeep kept moving, and the German-born Benedict kept waving, then proceeded with the audience as if nothing had happened.

[top picture: Vatican TV via Reuters TV/Reuters]