A passenger on a train heading to Florence Sunday opened fire on police who had asked to see identity documents, killing one officer and wounding another, state television said.Investigators suspected that the attacker’s companion aboard was a wanted Red Brigades terrorist, it reported.
Another passenger told state radio that he was travelling on the largely empty early morning train, which was making local stops between Rome and Florence, and turned to look when he heard loud voices coming from a passenger compartment. “The passenger put a gun to the head of one of the policemen and fired,” said the passenger.
He then fired several more shots at the other officer, who suffered a serious lung wound.
A third policeman rushed to the aid of his colleagues, firing several shots, including one which injured the passenger who had shot the policeman in the head. It was not clear why the passengers were asked to show identification.
In Italy, under anti-terrorism legislation enacted when the country was battling domestic terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s, police can stop passers-by and travellers, including in cars, and demand to see identification.
The Italian news agency ANSA said anti-terrorism experts were questioning the gunman’s companion, an Italian woman, who was described as being calm after the attack, which happened when the train was near the Tuscan town of Arezzo.
RAI state TV said the woman was believed to be Desdemona Lioce, 43, suspected of belonging to a recently revived organisation of Red Brigades. The attacker was not immediately identified, but news reports said he appeared to be Italian.
Italy suffered from shootings by terrorists from the extreme left and bombings blamed on terrorists on the extreme right in the 1970s and 1980s, but domestic terrorism was considered largely vanquished with the arrest of scores of suspects.
In 1999, terrorism returned to Italy with the killing of a consultant working on labour reform which had been denounced by many leftists.
The fatal shooting of Massimo D’Antona on a Rome street was the first Red Brigades attack in 11 years. In March 2002, gunmen in Bologna gunned down another labour reform consultant, Marco Biagi, outside his apartment block.
None of the killers has been caught.