Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella have visited victims of a car-ramming and stabbing attack on the main shopping street of the northern city of Modena.
At about 4:30pm local time on Saturday, a 31-year-old man identified as Salim El Koudri drove at high speed through the city centre, hitting more than a dozen people. The attacker also stabbed a pedestrian before being stopped by a group of passers-by. Eight people were taken to hospital in serious condition, according to the ANSA state news agency.
Two women aged 55 and 69 had their legs amputated, and one of them remains in a life-threatening condition, read a statement released on Sunday by the city prosecutor's office. The prosecutors added that the attack was carried out “in an indiscriminate, random and deliberate manner”.
The Italian leaders did not release statements following their visits on Sunday to two hospitals where the injured are being treated. The previous day, Meloni called the attack “extremely serious” and thanked the residents who “courageously intervened to stop the perpetrator, and to the police for their intervention”.
El Koudri was born in the northern province of Bergamo to a family originally from Morocco, according to ANSA. Speaking to journalists on Sunday, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said that while the investigation is ongoing, the incident appears related “to a situation of psychiatric distress”. “Nothing escaped us from the standpoint of counterterrorism prevention,” he added.
Italian broadcaster RaiNews reported that the suspect has shown symptoms of schizoid disorders and had been treated between 2022 and 2024 at a mental health centre in the same province. Far-right Deputy Minister Matteo Salvini commented on El Koudri's origins, highlighting that he was an Italian national “of second generation”. Modena's Mayor Massimo Mezzetti noted that two of the four citizens who blocked the attacker were of foreign origin, calling them “a symbol of a community that knows how to react, unite and intervene”.
Source: www.aljazeera.com