Six injured in Italy drive-by shooting targeting foreigners

A shaven-headed far-right supporter wounded six foreigners Saturday in a brazen drive-by shooting in central Italy and was later arrested, police and local officials said.

After the morning assault in the town of Macerata, the suspect got out of his car, made a fascist salute with a tricolour Italian flag draped over his shoulders and shouted “Viva Italia”, or “Long Live Italy”, witnesses said.

He opened fire in eight areas in the town and also targeted the office of the centre-left Democratic Party, press reports said.

“Six people were injured and all of them are foreigners,” said town mayor Romano Carancini after the shooting spree spread panic in the sleepy town of 43,000 people.

Police confirmed in a tweet that “the wounded persons were of foreign nationality”, adding that the “presumed author of the attack is Italian”.

Television footage showed the suspect being arrested at the town’s war memorial. Police also posted a photo of the capture.

Italian media identified the man as Luca Traini, 28, and said he was a member of the far-right anti-immigration Northern League party, who had run in local elections last year.

Media reports said police found a gun in the man’s vehicle, a black Alfa Romeo.

“Someone who shoots is a delinquent, irrespective of the colour of his skin,” said Northern league chief Matteo Salvini, in full campaign mode ahead of legislative elections on March 4.

“I’m in a hurry to be in government to bring back security, social justice and serenity to Italy,” he said.

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni meanwhile made a pitch for unity, saying: “Hate and violence will not divide us.”

The attack comes a day after a Nigerian asylum-seeker and drug dealer was arrested in Macerata over the gruesome killing of an 18-year-old Italian woman whose dismembered body was discovered in suitcases earlier this week.

– ‘Hate will not divide us’ –

Police found the clothes of the victim, Pamela Mastropietro, in the house of the 29-year-old Nigerian as well as a bloodstained knife.

However, no official link has been made between the two incidents.

Italians head to the polls in national elections next month, with immigration shaping up to be a key issue.

The country is a favoured landing point on Europe’s southern coastline for migrants making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean, often aboard unseaworthy boats, to enter the continent.

But 2017 was a turning point for Italy: the country went from large-scale arrivals in the first six months to a sharp drop-off, thanks to controversial agreement between the EU and Libya.

Some 119,000 people landed in Italy last year, down 35 percent on 2016.

The Northern League is part of a populist coalition tipped to do well in the elections.

According to opinion polls, the alliance between ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia (Go Italy), the post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia (Italian Brothers) and the Northern League leads with more than 35 percent ahead of the March 4 vote.