A car traveling at high speed ran over about ten people on the afternoon of this Saturday in the center of Modena, in northern Italy, causing at least seven injuries, two of them serious, according to Italian media. They have been taken to the Maggiore hospital in Bologna.
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The vehicle, a Citroen C3, then crashed into a shop window. The driver, who was also injured, fled the scene on foot and during his escape stabbed a person who lunged at him to stop him, according to the Ansa agency. He was arrested shortly after by the police.
Initial reports indicate that the detainee is a 31-year-old Italian, born in the town of Seriate, in Bergamo, further north, to foreign parents originally from North Africa. He is being interrogated at the police station and has no criminal record, the media report. The motive for the incident is yet to be established, but if confirmed as an attack, it would be the first of its kind in Italy, which in recent years has remained free from such attacks.
“We saw the car coming, it was heading towards the sidewalk. Suddenly, it accelerated. It was going at least 100 kilometers per hour, we saw people flying,” some witnesses told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
In the first impact, a person riding a bicycle was knocked down, followed by a woman who was seriously injured in the legs and, according to Italian media, lost both limbs. A neighbor, Luca Signorelli, came to her aid and was later injured by the car driver, he told the Ansa agency: “While I was trying to help the lady, he fled. So I chased him, and meanwhile, four or five other people followed me. He disappeared behind a bunch of cars and then reappeared with a knife in his hand. He was mumbling something, but it was not in Italian.”
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According to his testimony, Signorelli confronted the individual: “He tried to stab me twice, once in the heart and once in the head. I managed to dodge one blow but the other hit me. Then I blocked his wrist and neutralized him,” he recounted with a bloodied head, according to Ansa. Other people came to his aid to restrain the man.
“We need to understand the reason but it is a dramatic act, I am deeply affected, whatever its nature, it is a very serious event, if it were an attack it would be even more serious,” said the mayor of Modena, Massimo Mezzetti. “I want to thank the citizens who stopped him. The man was armed with a knife, they showed courage and great civic spirit. I express my most sincere gratitude to them in this very dramatic moment.”
The incident took place on Via Emilia in the city center. Police officers and emergency services arrived at the scene, cordoned off the area, and an investigation has already been opened.
The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who is in Greece attending a Europe-Gulf Forum summit in Navarino, has stated that she is closely following the events, in constant communication with the Interior Minister, Matteo Piantedosi.
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