ROME (Reuters) - Five Vatican employees, including the number two at the Vatican's Financial Information Authority (AIF) and a monsignor, have been suspended following a police raid, the Italian magazine L'Espresso reported on Tuesday.
The magazine ran on its website a picture of a police notice to guards at Vatican gates telling them not to allow the five inside because they had been suspended. The notice included photographs of the five, one of whom is a woman.
A Vatican spokesman said he had no immediate comment on the report.
The people whose pictures were on the notice included Tommaso Di Ruzza, the director of the AIF, and Monsignor Mauro Carlino, the head of documentation at the Secretariat of State. The other three held minor roles in the Secretariat of State, the key department in the Vatican's central administration.
Calls to Di Ruzza's cell phone went unanswered. Reuters was not immediately able to contact the other officials.
Vatican police raided both offices on Tuesday and seized documents and electronic devices as part of an investigation of suspected financial irregularities.
(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Alex Richardson)