A man stripped off his clothes and stood naked on the church’s main altar in Vatican City on Thursday. He appeared to have been protesting against the war in Ukraine, the news agency Reuters reported, citing a source. The man, who was not identified, had an inscription on his back calling for the children of Ukraine to be saved.
According to Reuters, the man had self-inflicted cuts on his body from his fingernails. The incident occurred just before the basilica closed on Thursday afternoon. The man was handed over to the police by the Vatican guards. Several media websites in Italy ran photos of the incident that were taken by tourists, as reported by Reuters.