Incident occurred during the Jubilee of Youth.
Around 70 Spanish pilgrims found themselves locked inside a Rome train station on Tuesday night after arriving in the Italian capital for the Vatican’s Jubilee of Youth.
The incident occurred shortly after midnight when the youth group arrived at the Ottavia train station, in the northern suburbs of the city, state broadcaster RAI News reports.
Once they disembarked from the train, the young pilgrims discovered the station gates closed and found themselves trapped inside.
After the pilgrims raised the alarm by calling emergency services, Carabinieri police arrived at the scene and contacted the station’s private security service.
The gates were finally opened at around 01.30, according to RAI News, allowing the pilgrim group to exit the station and reach their accommodation.
A similar incident occurred in Rome in 2022 when European Mobility Week got off to a bad start after dozens of commuters were locked into a subway station for about 40 minutes during a public transport strike.
The Jubilee of Youth, the largest event of the Vatican’s ongoing Jubilee Year, is expected to attract around half a million pilgrims to Rome this week, with major events being held at St Peter’s, the Circus Maximus and Tor Vergata.
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