A man who drove a car into a crowd in the northern Italian city of Modena on Saturday, injuring eight people, four of them seriously, appears to have no links to any terrorist groups, interior minister Matteo Piantedosi said in a newspaper interview on Monday.
Salim El Koudri, a 31-year-old Italian citizen of Moroccan origin, attempted to flee and stabbed one of three people who tried to stop him before being arrested by police.
“At this stage, there are no indications of structured Islamist radicalisation, and he does not appear to be linked to fundamentalist propaganda networks,” Piantedosi told the daily Il Giornale.
He said searches of El Koudri’s phone “have so far not revealed elements consistent with the typical profile of a terrorist planning violent acts”.
Attacks using vehicles to drive into crowds have become more common worldwide, but this was the first in Italy.
Piantedosi said El Koudri, who was born and brought up in Italy, had been diagnosed as having “a schizoid personality disorder” and had “expressed resentment and dissatisfaction with his work and social condition”.
Italy’s far-right League party, part of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s governing coalition, has heightened its anti-immigrant rhetoric since Saturday’s incident.
Reuters
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