No one can ignore Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's convoy: the flickering blue lights and sirens, the fleet of armored black Volvos, the bodyguards.
However this week the convoy left one person behind: Sharon himself.
The Yediot Aharonot newspaper said Thursday the convoy had set out from his official residence, in the heart of Jerusalem, to the Knesset, but only when it neared the legislature was it discovered the prime minister was not there.
Sharon was reportedly waiting in his car in a closed garage in his residence with some of his bodyguards while the others rushed off.
The convoy turned back to get him.
A spokesman for the prime minister declined comment.
"We do not respond to issues concerning the security of the prime minister," he said.
© Copyright 2004 by United Press International
