The Vatican said a man was arrested and will undergo mandatory medical treatment after he breached Vatican security and broke through a gate while driving too fast.
A statement said a Vatican policeman fired a rifle and hit the car. He described the man as forty years old and in an unstable state of mind.
The man did not approach the guesthouse on the other side of Vatican City, where Pope Francesco lives.
The statement said the breach occurred at around 0 p.m. local time, when the man broke through the St. Anne Gate by car, one of the multiple entrances separating the 44.<>-square-kilometer sovereign city-state from Rome.
The Vatican said on Friday that the prosecutor had questioned the man, who was accompanied by a lawyer.
The man was later transferred to a psychiatric unit at a hospital in Rome for mandatory medical treatment.
Italian news agency ANSA, citing unnamed high-level sources, said the man had made two previous attempts on Thursday to enter the Vatican, saying he wanted to speak to the pope, but guards refused him entry.