A driver with a history of mental health problems ran over several people in the northern Italian city of Modena on Saturday, injuring eight people, four of them seriously, authorities said.
Surveillance footage broadcast by Italian media showed a car driving at high speed into a street in the city center crowded with pedestrians and cyclists.
The driver, an Italian of Moroccan origin, struck several people before crashing into a store window and colliding head-on with a woman, City Administrator Fabrizia Triolo said at a news conference.
He tried to flee the scene but was chased by four passers-by and cornered, before pulling out a knife and stabbing one of them.
The governor said eight people, including a German and a Pole, had been taken to hospital, four of them with serious injuries. One of the injured had to have his leg amputated.
The governor said that the driver was an economics graduate born in 1995. The police did not know him, but he experienced a “psychological disorder” in 2022.
She added: “He was treated for schizophrenia at a mental health center but after an initial period of observation in a care facility we lost track of him.”
According to the premier, the driver was not under the influence of “psychotropic drugs.”
His home near Modena was searched.
– Pedestrian catches suspect –
Michel De Pascal, the head of the Emilia-Romagna region, told a news conference that this was an “extremely serious act, but it is important to understand its nature and motives and let us wait for more information.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni wrote on X that the incident was “extremely serious”.
“I would also like to express my gratitude to the citizens who bravely stepped in to detain the perpetrators and to the response of law enforcement officers,” she added.
One of the passers-by who intervened, Luca Signorelli, who was bleeding from the head, told an Italian TV channel that he “heard the crash and saw people being run over.
“The car rushed towards me and I managed to fall to the ground,” Signorelli added.
“The car started to smoke, I opened the door and he ran away; four or five of us chased him… He pulled out a knife and hit me on the head and another blow on my heart, but I managed to dodge.”
Modena mayor Massimo Mezzetti thanked “citizens who showed courage and civic duty.”
He added: “We need to understand the reasons behind this behaviour. But this is a dramatic incident.
“I was deeply shocked.”
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This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
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