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Two police officers were injured today after being shot outside the Italian prime minister’s office.
A Carabiniere police officer lies injured on the ground after gunshots were fired in Rome today
Enrico Letta’s new government was being sworn in less than a mile away at the president’s palace at the time – and witnesses said a man dressed in a suit and tie was arrested at the scene of the attack.
Following the incident in a crowded square in Rome, one officer was seen lying on the pavement with blood pouring out of his neck, according to a witness. Seven bullets lay on the square.
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Luigi Preiti, in his 40s, from the southern Italian region of Calabria, was arrested. Preiti was unemployed and separated from his wife but had never suffered from mental illness, his brother said.
Having fired several shots at the two police on duty outside the prime minister’s office, he shouted ‘shoot me, shoot me’ to other police officers nearby, police said.
One of the two officers was shot in the neck and was in a serious, but not life-threatening condition, while the other officer was shot in the leg and less seriously hurt.
It was initially unclear whether the attack was linked to the launch of the new government.
A suspect lies on the ground being detained by police after a shooting outside the PM’s office
Letta, 46, the moderate deputy head of the Democratic Party, ended two months of political stalemate since February’s inconclusive election yesterday when he brought together former political rivals in a broad coalition government.
Ministers stepped forward to swear allegiance to the republic before President Giorgio Napolitano, who personally picked Letta as prime minister and had a major role in the choice of his cabinet team.
Italy’s state police chief raced to the scene of the attack. An aide to Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said that the new Cabinet members were being kept inside until the situation became more clear.
The shooting immediately sparked ugly memories of the 1970s and 1980s when domestic terrorism plagued Italy during a time of high political tensions between right-wing and left-wing blocs.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said the attack appeared to be an ‘isolated act’ that did not suggest any wider security threat.
‘The tragic and criminal act this morning was carried out by an unemployed 49-year-old man who showed signs of wanting to commit suicide,’ he was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
There were calls for politicians to try to calm a volatile public mood.
‘All political forces have to work together to lower the level of tension that the economic, social and institutional climate has already created,’ said centre-left parliamentarian Emanuele Fiano.
The more seriously injured of the two police officers was a 50-year-old brigadier. A bullet had entered the right side of the officer’s neck, damaged his spinal column and was lodged near his shoulder.
It was not yet known if the spinal column injury had caused any paralysis. The other victim was a 30-year-old officer who was shot in the leg and had suffered a fracture, hospital officials said.
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