Reported Plot Against Pope Foiled
WASHINGTON — Austrian police discovered an assassination plot against Pope John Paul II during his visit to Vienna, ABC News reported Monday.
The U.S. television network said the plot called for snipers to shoot at the Pope as he visited St. Stephen’s Cathedral in central Vienna last Thursday.
The Pope, who returned to the Vatican on Monday, was wounded in 1981 in St. Peter’s Square in Rome by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish member of a right-wing group.
In a report from Vienna, ABC said it had learned the Austrian police were seeking two Turks as the prime suspects in the reported plot. The attempt was apparently foiled, ABC said, when Austrian security forces raided a prayer center used by Turkish Muslims in Vienna.
Austrian authorities confirmed that police had obtained photographs of a construction site with a clear field of fire toward the cathedral, ABC said. The report said the photographs showed positions for snipers in the half-finished building.
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