The driver in his thirties “aimed at the sidewalk, also hitting a bicycle, then crashed, hitting head-on a woman, the most seriously injured, with her legs crushed”, indicated Mayor Massimo Mezzetti.
A driver with a psychiatric history hit pedestrians in the center of Modena (northern Italy), injuring eight people, four of whom were serious, before being arrested, according to the authorities, without it being yet known whether or not it was an attack.
A car entered a downtown street full of pedestrians and cyclists at high speed on this sunny afternoon, according to video surveillance images broadcast by the media.
The driver, a young Italian of Moroccan origin, knocked down several passers-by before crashing into a window, hitting a woman head-on, said the prefect of Modena, Fabrizia Triolo, during a press conference on Saturday evening.
He then tried to escape, ran and was caught by four passers-by, facing whom he pulled out a knife. He injured one of them before being arrested. Eight injured people were hospitalized, including four in serious condition, said the prefect. One of the seriously injured had to have both legs amputated. Among those seriously injured were a German woman and a Polish woman, said the mayor of Modena, Massimo Mezzetti.
“A state of psychic disturbance” in 2022
The driver, born in 1995, graduated in economics, was unknown to the police. But in 2022 he had gone through “a state of psychological disturbance”, indicated the prefect. “He had been treated by the mental health center for schizoid disorders, but we lost track of him after this first period of observation in a care center,” she said.
The driver was not under the influence of “psychotropic substances” this Saturday according to the prefect. His home near Modena was searched.
This is an “extremely serious act, but it is important to understand the nature, the motive, let’s all wait to have information”, underlined the president of the Emilia-Romagna region, Michele de Pascale, during the conference. “I believe that we must also exercise the necessary caution, since we do not yet have clear elements, and that we must await the outcome of the prosecution’s investigations.”
Giorgia Meloni denounces an “extremely serious” act
“What happened today in Modena, where a man knocked down several pedestrians then allegedly stabbed a passer-by, is extremely serious,” declared the President of the Italian Council, Giorgia Meloni, on the X platform.
The mayor of Modena thanked “those citizens who had courage and great civic sense”, including “two foreigners”. Their gesture “demonstrates lucidity, reflexes and courage which must be absolutely recognized and thanked, but which are also the symbol of a community which knows, even in such a dramatic moment, to react, unite and intervene as they did”, underlined Massimo Mezzetti.
“Whatever its nature, it is an extremely serious fact. If it was an attack, it would be even more serious”, the mayor had earlier declared to RaiNews, eleven years after the attacks in Nice and Berlin, where dozens of people had been knocked down in attacks claimed by the Islamic State group.
“I express my closeness to the injured people and their families,” continued Giorgia Meloni. “I also extend my thanks to the citizens who courageously intervened to arrest the person responsible, as well as to the police for their intervention. (…) I have confidence in the fact that the person responsible will fully answer for his actions.”
