Police arrest US tourist for smashing up Church of Annunciation

Police say they have arrested a metal rod-wielding American tourist who caused damage to Nazareth’s Church of the Annunciation.

The man, who the police suspect is mentally unstable, caused damage to a partition and threw several chairs in the basilica, considered in Christian tradition to be built over the spot where the annunciation of Jesus took place.

A nun and a priest pass by the Basilica of the Annunciation, part of the Nazareth scenery for Abu-Assad, a Moslem raised in Christian Nazareth (photo credit: Nati Shohat/Flash 90)

A nun and a priest pass by the Basilica of the Annunciation, part of the Nazareth scenery for Abu-Assad, a Moslem raised in Christian Nazareth (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Worshipers in the church managed to subdue the man and called police, who are transferring him to a hospital, according to police spokesperson Luba Samri.

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