Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has altered her schedule to visit Modena on Sunday following a vehicle attack that wounded multiple people in the northern Italian city, according to government sources. The prime minister scrapped a planned meeting with Cyprus’ president in Nicosia to make the trip.
Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella is also planning to visit the city, sources confirmed.
On Saturday, a 30-year-old Italian-born man of North African descent plowed his vehicle into pedestrians in Modena’s downtown area, leaving eight people wounded, with four sustaining severe injuries.
After the attack, the suspect tried to escape on foot and used a knife to wound one of three civilians who attempted to apprehend him. Police subsequently took him into custody.
On Sunday, prosecutors in Modena released a statement saying the suspect faces charges of massacre and personal injury, while investigators work to determine what motivated the attack.
Officials described how the man targeted walkers in the busy downtown district of the city, home to more than 180,000 people, “in an indiscriminate, random and deliberate manner.”
“The man had received treatment for mental health issues in 2022 due to schizoid personality disorder, after which he went off the radar,” Modena’s mayor, Massimo Mezzetti, told broadcaster RaiNews24 late on Saturday.
Prosecutors revealed that among the critically wounded victims, two suffered leg amputations, with one person fighting for their life.
