Italy school bomb blast revives memories
Source: Agencies |
May 21, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A BOMB blast outside a high school in southern Italy that killed a 16-year-old student has revived dark memories of the 70s and 80s, when terrorists, anarchists and organized crime carried out dozens of bloody attacks across the country.
Investigators had no firm clue yesterday of who was behind the attack and there was still no claim of responsibility a day after the crude device made up of gas cylinders exploded outside a mainly all-girls vocational school in the Adriatic port town of Brindisi.
The blast could be the work of an individual "angry with the world" said the prosecutor heading the investigation, Marco Dinapoli.
"It is not impossible that a person acting alone did all the organization," he said, adding that the person would have needed some weapons training to assemble the device and set it off by remote control.
Dinapoli indicated that a nearby closed-circuit security camera had captured images of the alleged attacker.
An anti-Mafia magistrate, Cataldo Motta, said Saturday that although it didn't appear that local organized crime gangs were behind the attack, it was too early to reach conclusions.
Killed in the blast was Melissa Bassi, who friends say dreamed of becoming a fashion designer.
The condition of four other young schoolmates and hospitalized with burns was reported yesterday to be improving.
The mainly all-girls Francesca Laura Morvillo Falcone vocational institute is named after a judge who was killed alongside her prosecutor husband, anti-Mafia hero Giovanni Falcone, in a highway bombing in Sicily, exactly 20 years ago, leading some to think the mob may be responsible.
Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri, in charge of domestic security, said she was "struck" by the fact that the school was named after the judge, but she cautioned that investigators at that point had "no elements" to blame the school attack on organized crime.
The bombing follows a spate of recent attacks against Italian officials and government or public buildings by a group of anarchists, including the shooting and wounding of an official from a nuclear engineering firm, which is part of a state-controlled company.
Investigators had no firm clue yesterday of who was behind the attack and there was still no claim of responsibility a day after the crude device made up of gas cylinders exploded outside a mainly all-girls vocational school in the Adriatic port town of Brindisi.
The blast could be the work of an individual "angry with the world" said the prosecutor heading the investigation, Marco Dinapoli.
"It is not impossible that a person acting alone did all the organization," he said, adding that the person would have needed some weapons training to assemble the device and set it off by remote control.
Dinapoli indicated that a nearby closed-circuit security camera had captured images of the alleged attacker.
An anti-Mafia magistrate, Cataldo Motta, said Saturday that although it didn't appear that local organized crime gangs were behind the attack, it was too early to reach conclusions.
Killed in the blast was Melissa Bassi, who friends say dreamed of becoming a fashion designer.
The condition of four other young schoolmates and hospitalized with burns was reported yesterday to be improving.
The mainly all-girls Francesca Laura Morvillo Falcone vocational institute is named after a judge who was killed alongside her prosecutor husband, anti-Mafia hero Giovanni Falcone, in a highway bombing in Sicily, exactly 20 years ago, leading some to think the mob may be responsible.
Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri, in charge of domestic security, said she was "struck" by the fact that the school was named after the judge, but she cautioned that investigators at that point had "no elements" to blame the school attack on organized crime.
The bombing follows a spate of recent attacks against Italian officials and government or public buildings by a group of anarchists, including the shooting and wounding of an official from a nuclear engineering firm, which is part of a state-controlled company.
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