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Driver opens fire on African migrants in Italian city of Macerata Italy: failed Northern League candidate held over migrant shootings
(about 1 hour later)
At least six people are said to have been shot in attack described as racially motivated Far-right election candidate arrested in city of Macerata after shooting spree targeting Africans
Damien Gayle and agenciesDamien Gayle and agencies
Sat 3 Feb 2018 14.11 GMT Sat 3 Feb 2018 16.41 GMT
First published on Sat 3 Feb 2018 13.06 GMTFirst published on Sat 3 Feb 2018 13.06 GMT
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A man has opened fire on pedestrians in the Italian city of Macerata, injuring several African migrants in an attack that police said appeared to be racially motivated. A failed election candidate for Italy’s far-right Northern League has been arrested after a gunman targeted African migrants in a two-hour drive-by shooting spree in the Italian city of Macerata.
Local media reported that at least six migrants, five men and a woman, had been shot by a man driving and firing from his car window. Luca Traini, 28, was arrested after six people were shot in the small city near Italy’s east coast, 200km (125 miles) east of Rome. Police said the attack appeared to be racially motivated.
Police told residents to stay out of the way and avoid open places before announcing that a man had been arrested. A video posted by the newspaper Il Resto di Carlino showed armed officers arresting a man with an Italian flag draped over his shoulders in the city centre, near where he apparently fled his car on foot.
The suspect was later named as Luca Traini, a 28-year-old white Italian man from Macerata. Police published a photo of him, with an Italian flag draped over his shoulders, being taken away by armed officers. “He drove around in his car and when he saw any coloured people he shot them,” Marcello Mancini, a Macerata resident, told Reuters. Romano Carancini, the city’s mayor, confirmed that six foreign nationals, all of them black, had been wounded in the shooting spree. One had life-threatening injuries, he said.
Corriere della Sera reported that a man had fired from a car window at two young African people shortly after 11am local time, wounding one. A short while later two other people, including a woman, were shot. The ruling centre-left Democratic party said Traini had stood as a candidate for the Northern League at local elections last year and also accused him of firing shoots at one of their offices in Macerata before he was arrested.
By the afternoon the tally of victims had risen to six, with one suffering life-threatening injuries, according to the city’s mayor, Romano Carancini. The Northern League’s leader, Matteo Salvini, distanced himself from the shooting, but said unrestrained immigration was causing social strife. “I can’t wait to get into government to restore security, social justice and serenity to Italy,” he said.
The shootings happened days after the dismembered body of an 18-year-old Italian woman, Pamela Mastropietro, was discovered in two suitcases near Macerata, in the Marche region around the city, about 125 miles (200km) north-east of Rome. The shootings happened days after a Nigerian was arrested in connection with the death of an 18-year-old Italian woman, Pamela Mastropietro, whose dismembered body was discovered hidden in two suitcases near Macerata.
A 29-year-old Nigerian man has been arrested in connection with the woman’s death. Rightwingers campaigning before national elections on 4 March have leapt on Mastropietro’s death to promote their anti-migrant message. The suspect, Innocent Oseghale, who was denied asylum last year but has remained in Italy, has refused to talk to police.
Rightwing politicians campaigning before national elections on 4 March leapt on Mastropietro’s gruesome death to promote their anti-migrant message.
A preliminary postmortem was unable to establish the cause of her death. The suspect, who was denied asylum last year but has remained in Italy, has refused to talk to police.
“What was this worm still doing in Italy?” Matteo Salvini, the head of the far-right Northern League, wrote on Facebook, accusing the centre-left government of responsibility for Mastropietro’s death for allowing migrants to stay in the country. “The left has blood on its hands.”
ItalyItaly
Race issuesRace issues
MigrationMigration
EuropeEurope
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