AGI –  A 6-year-old boy stabbed in the throat in very serious conditions , four other people injured, panic scenes among tourists on a Saturday at the sea at the end of the season: bewilderment and anger in Rimini and condemnation of politics after a 26-year-old originally from Somalia was arrested for attempted murder , injury and robbery.

Excluding the terrorist trail

The investigators of the Rimini Mobile team are working to understand the origin of the gesture and reconstruct the ‘story’ of the suspect. At the moment, the terrorist trail seems excluded. The Somali was blocked and arrested by the police while on board the Metromare. The child is out of danger, even if the conditions remain serious.

The foreigner had arrived in Europe in 2015 and had applied for asylum in various countries. He had been in Italy for a few months, had applied for refugee status, and was a guest of a Red Cross facility. The 26-year-old, already heard by the prosecutors, would not have specific precedents but the agents are also sifting through his past to detect any other aggressive and violent behavior.

“He was probably under the massive effect of drugs,” wrote in a post on Facebook Jamil Sadegholvaad, city councilor of Rimini. “A history of integration that hasn’t even begun”, he underlines.

In a few minutes 5 injured

It all happened yesterday afternoon in a few minutes. The 26-year-old was on bus number 11 between Riccione and Rimini, without a ticket when approached by two female controllers, he pulled out a knife and hit them with two slashes. One blow to the shoulder and the other to smear in the neck. Then he ran off to the waterfront area. He threatened two motorists in an attempt to escape in the car. But he didn’t succeed.

While fleeing on foot, he stabbed two other people and a child. The little boy, 6 years old, hit in the throat, arrived at the Infermi hospital in Rimini.   The blade severed his jugular: he was hospitalized and in the night he underwent a delicate surgery for the reconstruction of the carotid, seriously damaged by the blow.

Support for the child’s family

In the hospital “we found a family in shock, but which waited for those dramatic hours with great dignity and composure. It is a family of oriental origin, from Bangladesh. The father works in an important company in the Rimini area and the 3 children were all born here ”: said the mayor of Rimini, Andrea Gnassi, who has remained in these hours alongside the child’s family.

“During the night we got involved with the employer” of the child’s father “and with the social services of the municipality of residence to provide total support, solidarity and practicality, to the family. The father – concluded Gnassi – wanted to thank the doctors, policemen, God, all those who gathered around in those very hard moments. Always with great dignity “.

“I want to thank the women and men of the police, who immediately captured the criminal, bringing him to justice, demonstrating the efficiency and self-denial of the police operating in this area. Just this morning I met the officers who carried out the arrest and together we brought gifts to the child. And also Maurizio Focchi, owner of the child’s father’s company, with whom we are also assisting the family today in the hospital.

“For the person responsible for this unprecedented violence, one must ask for nothing but the utmost rigor. There can be no justification or mitigating factor for what has been done. The laws exist and must be applied,” Gnassi said.

The reactions of politics

Politics was also condemned: “What happened in Rimini is of unprecedented gravity” declared Stefano Bonaccini, president of Emilia Romagna and then asked “that the facts be ascertained and the law applied with the utmost rigor towards those who he was guilty of a dramatic and unacceptable fact ”. “Damn thug, I hope no one says ‘poor thing’ … At home and stop, right minister Lamorgese?”, Said the secretary of the League, Matteo Salvini.

” I am close to the people attacked and injured last night in Rimini, including a child, and to their families “, wrote the Minister of the Interior, Luciana Lamorgese in a note, thanking the police for the immediate arrest the perpetrator of the stabbing. “I am in constant contact with the prefect also to find out about the evolution of the clinical picture of the injured and tomorrow morning I will be in Rimini to participate, at 11.30, in the provincial committee for public order and safety convened for an examination of the very serious episode “, added the Minister of the Interior.

“I do not even want to comment on the, unfortunately, almost physiological political speculation, with an election view, on the part of people who throw themselves into these facts with the speed of vultures while the doctors operate, the police and the judiciary bring the person responsible to justice”, Gnassi replied from a distance.