A “suspicious” drone was spotted on Saturday morning flying over the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church, causing a terror alert in the strict no-fly zone.
On Monday a quadcopter, a drone with four motors, was seen flying over the nearby Pantheon and Rotonda Square in front of it, prompting police to call in reinforcements.
The Vatican incident is causing much concern for the Pope and his team as police failed to recover the aircraft and still have not identified its owner.
Yesterday’s scare was caused by a 37-year-old American tourist, who was quickly found by extra officers called into Rotonda Square, which holds the famous Trevi Fountain, after the drone triggered a terror alert.
He had placed a camera in the quadcopter to take aerial footage of the square and the Pantheon, the famous former Roman temple which attracts more than six million visitors every year.
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The tourist claimed it was an innocent move but was reprimanded for breaking the flight ban and for causing a terror alert.
Fears of a drone attack in Italy have risen over the past few months after Israel’s secret service warned drones capable of carrying explosives could be introduced into the European country.
Mossad claimed the armed drones had already entered Italy.
Operatives said two men with a fleet of “altered” aircrafts were detained by the Israeli army on the border with Jordan.
The men admitted their objective was to carry out attacks, specifically in the West.
Rome is especially on high alert after counter-terror police in June found foreigners had bought toy aircrafts after asking how they could modify them.
A Europol report said there was the possibility Islamic State (ISIS) could use drones in Europe to replicate attacks they have already carried out in Syria and Iraq.
Security software embedded in remote pilot systems should stop drones from flying into no-fly zones, however instructions available online make it easy to override the software.
Tracking systems in cities such as Rome are also not advanced enough to detect aircraft as small as a drone.