Wtf? Don’t Italian cops carry firearms? According to the simple write up there were police on the scene.
Yes. I was in Rome during the Red Brigades terror, when a PM was murdered. I saw heavily armed carabinieri everywhere, usually packed into microbuses and minivans, and around Parliament, paratroopers in full uniform armed with Beretta submachineguns (the little ones in .25 ACP, that the Secret Service used to carry in the 70's).
Answer: Yes.
I was just there at the coliseum - cops are everywhere and seriously armed.
“.........there were police on the scene”.........
Yes, and “they were powerless to help”..
Perhaps there is a new rule out there that commands that no one is to resist the ISIS idiots. Who the hell is in charge?