Archbishop Mario Zenari, the Vatican nuncio, said if the rocket had been launched just a half-hour later, he would have been saying morning prayers on the terrace near where the mortar struck.

"You can imagine what I would have encountered," he said.

He said he was just getting out of bed at 6:35 a.m. local time "when I heard a big bang and I immediately threw myself onto the floor, trying to stay away from the windows because we've already had the experience that sometimes it's not just one mortar, but two or three" that land in succession.

"It's not the first time that these rockets, this mortar fire, have fallen near the nunciature," he said.

The single strike Nov. 5 destroyed part of the roof, including the eaves of the building and part of the facade, the archbishop told the Rome-based AsiaNews agency.

If the strike had occurred later in the morning, after other employees had arrived at the nunciature, it could have provoked injuries because of the falling roof shingles and flying debris, he said.

Archbishop Zenari said they had no idea who launched the strike, but that it was "pretty powerful."

Sources

Catholic News Service

Catholic News Agency

AsiaNews

Image: Terrasanta