Modena car-ramming suspect not linked to terror groups, Italian minister says (original) (raw)

MILAN, May 18 (Reuters) - ⁠A man who drove a car into a ⁠crowd in the northern Italian city of Modena ‌on Saturday, injuring eight people, four of them seriously, appears to have no links to any terrorist groups, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi ​said in a newspaper interview on ⁠Monday.

• Salim El Koudri, ⁠a 31-year-old Italian man of Moroccan origin, attempted to ⁠flee ‌and stabbed one of three people who tried to stop him, before being arrested by ⁠police.

• "At this stage, there are no indications ​of structured Islamist ‌radicalisationand he does not appear to be linked ⁠to fundamentalist ​propaganda networks," Piantedosi told daily Il Giornale.

• He added that searches of El Koudri's phone, "have so far not revealed ⁠elements consistent with the typical profile ​of a terrorist planning violent acts."

• Attacks using vehicles to drive into crowds have become more common worldwide, but ⁠this was the first of its kind in Italy.

• Piantedosi said El Koudri, who was born and brought up in Italy, had been diagnosed as having "a schizoid ​personality disorder" and had "expressed resentment ⁠and dissatisfaction with his work and social condition."

• Italy's far-right ​League party, part of Giorgia ‌Meloni's ruling coalition, has heightened ​its anti-immigrant rhetoric since Saturday's incident.

(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro, editing by Gavin Jones and Alexandra Hudson)