Security around St Peter's Square has been doubled due to an concern about possible terrorist attacks targeting Pope Francis or the Vatican, ANSA sources said Friday. Extra Italian police were deployed at the pope's general audience on Wednesday, the sources said, adding that the level of vigilance around the Vatican had been at a maximum for some time.
The sources stressed that the level of alarm was high even though there were no specific threats. Last week, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Italy and Rome, as the cradle of Christianity, were "non secondary" targets of the Islamic State (ISIS) group. However, Alfano also stressed there was not as yet any "investigative evidence of terrorist plans in our country".
On Monday, the Vatican said ISIS had leveled no specific threat against Pope Francis, adding that it saw no reason to take security precautions for his day trip this Sunday to Tirana, the capital of majority-Muslim Albania.
"There is no reason to change the pope's itinerary ... or way of traveling," Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi said.
The pope will move around on a white Jeep convertible similar to the vehicles he uses for general audiences in St.
Peter's Square, said Lombardi.
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