Italy: PM Meloni visits hospital after Modena car-ramming injures eight

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella traveled to the northern city of Modena on Sunday, a day after several people were injured in a car-ramming incident that ‌was the first of its kind in the country.

31-year-old man, Salim El Koudri, born in Italy and of Moroccan origin, drove a car into a crowd in the city center on Saturday, injuring eight people, four of them seriously.

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The man attempted to flee and stabbed one of three passersby who tried to stop him. He was later arrested by police.

Modena's prosecutors said in a statement on Sunday that the suspect is under investigation for attempted massacre and personal injury.

They said the man struck pedestrians in the crowded city center, which has more than 180,000 residents, "in an indiscriminate, random and deliberate manner."

Among those seriously injured, two lost their legs and one was in a life-threatening condition, the prosecutors added.

The attacker also stabbed a pedestrian before being stopped by a group of passers-by. Eight people were taken to the hospital in serious condition, the ANSA state news agency reported.

Two women aged 55 and 69 had their legs amputated, and one of them remains in a life-threatening condition, read a statement released on Sunday by the city prosecutor’s office.

The prosecutors added that the attack was carried out “in an indiscriminate, random and deliberate manner."The Italian leaders did not release statements following their visits on Sunday to two hospitals where the injured are being treated.

The previous day, Meloni called the attack “extremely serious” and thanked the residents who “courageously intervened to stop the perpetrator and the police for their intervention."

According to ANSA, El Koudri was born in the northern province of Bergamo to a family originally from Morocco.

Speaking to journalists on Sunday, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said that while the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the attack is ongoing, the incident appears related “to a situation of psychiatric distress."