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Subscribe to RSSPolice are on the hunt for suspects after a bomb exploded outside an Italian high school. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
Updated at 9.10 a.m ET: An explosion at a school in Italy Saturday killed a teenage girl and injured several others, according to reports and officials.
The blast happened at 7:45 a.m. at a school in Brindisi as students were waiting to go inside, NBC News reported.
The high school, which is opposite a court in the city, is named after the slain anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone and his wife, Francesca Morvillo, a judge who was also killed in the 1992 bombing in Sicily by Cosa Nostra.
One of the wounded students, a girl who was walking alongside the victim outside the school in Brindisi, was reported in critical condition after surgery.
Officials said at least seven students were injured, but some news reports put the figure at 10.
Brindisi's Perrino hospital, where the wounded were taken, declined to give out information by phone.
Dr. Paola Ciannamea, a Perrino physician who helped treat the injured at the hospital, told reporters there that one of the injured was a teenage girl who was in grave but stable condition after surgery.
She added that plastic surgery was still being performed on some of the other injured, who suffered burns in the blast.
No claim of responsibility
An unidentified hospital official, briefing reporters there, said the critically injured student was in stable condition after surgery and that several of the injured students had suffered burns and is undergoing plastic surgery.
Max Frigione / AP
Notebooks are seen scattered at the site where an explosive device went off near the Francesca Morvillo Falcone High School in Brindisi, Italy, Saturday.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility.
Italy has been marking the 20th anniversary of the Sicilian highway attack, but it was unclear if there was an organized crime link to Saturday's explosion.
In Brindisi, local civil protection agency official Fabiano Amati said a female student died of her wounds after being taken to a hospital and at least seven other students were hospitalized.
Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri, in charge of domestic security, said she was "struck" by the fact that the school was named after the slain hero and his wife, but she cautioned that investigators at that point "have no elements" to blame the school attack on organized crime.
"It's not the usual (method) for the Mafia," she told Sky television in a phone interview. The Sicilian-based Cosa Nostra usually targets specific figures, such as judges, prosecutors, turncoats or rival mobsters in attacks, and not civilian targets such as schools.
"The big problem now is to get intelligence" on the attack, said Cancellieri. She added that she had spoken by phone with Italian Premier Mario Monti, in the United States for the G-8 summit.
Outside the school, textbooks, their pages flipping in a breeze, notebooks and a backpack littered the street near where the bomb exploded. At the sound of the blast, students already inside the building ran outside of the school to see what happened.
Officials initially said the device was in a trash bin outside the Morvillo-Falcone school, but later the ANSA news agency, reporting from Brindisi, said the device, consisting of three cooking-gas canisters, a detonator and possibly a timer, had been placed on a low wall ringing the school. The wall was damaged and charred from the blast.
Public high schools in Italy hold classes on Saturday mornings.
Specializes in fashion, social services
A school official, Valeria Vitale, told Sky that most of the pupils were girls. The school specializes in training for jobs in fashion and social services, she said.
The bombing also follows a number of attacks against Italian officials and government or public buildings by a group of anarchists, which prompted authorities to assign bodyguards for 550 individuals and deploy 16,000 law enforcement officers nationwide.
Minister Cancellieri indicated that after the school blast, authorities' sense of what could be a possible target had been tested.
"Anything now could be a 'sensitive' target," she said.
Austerity measures, spending cuts and new and higher taxes, all part of economist Monti's plan to save Italy from succumbing to the debt crisis roiling Greece, have angered many citizens, and social tensions have ratcheted up.
"The economic crisis doesn't help," Cancellieri said, referring to the tensions.
Brindisi is a lively port town in Puglia, the region in the southeastern "heel" of the Italian boot-shaped peninsula. An organized crime syndicate known as the Sacred United Crown, has been traditionally active there, but crackdowns have been widely considered by authorities to have lessened the organization's power in the region.
The Associated Press and NBC News' Claudio Lavanga contributed to this report.
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One person and 6 students...typo?
how does that make you feel? Nuts? innocenence is not for you to decide.
The school in question in Brindisi is a vocational school named Francesca Morvilla Falcone School named for the famous anit-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone who was killed by the Mafia in a bomb attack with his wife. 2 (two) pupils were killed (one 16 yr old girl) in the 2 bombs bomb attack at the school. Purses (school knapsacks) were left at the door. There will be more reported shortly in La Republica and news outlets. Brindisi is one of the places where migrants from Libya are landing.Judge Falcone was killed in 1992.
So they cant update the story in 4 hours?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18128170
Maybe you should quit your job as couch potato and go to work as a journalist.
The latest from Berflin: The schhol is named Morvillo Falcone (for the judge's wife -both killed by Mafia on May 23,1992), 2 pupils- both girls aged 16 were killed- others injured 9- 8 of them pupils of the MODELING school. 600 pupils altogether. 3 bombs in satchels. There is a march startinmg from Rome on April 11 for AntiMafia march coming to the port city of Brandisi. There has been numerous threats to newspapers (Calabria Ora,Gazzetta del Sud et al) and anarchist attacks (white powders, breaking glass,mayhem) nor by Mafia but the organization named FAI (Federazione Anarchica Informale)
I graduated from that school in 1985, I remember waiting in front of that gate every morning. My heart goes to those kids and their families.
That must give the attack an emotional impact I can only imagine. If a bomb went off at my former high school, I cannot imagine how I would feel.
Why choose a school?
Because they are cowards. Attacking children is an act of pure, sick cowardice.
Absolutely!
Terrorist attacks, from whatever source, always choose easy targets. I imagine that most obvious infrastructure targets have been somewhat hardened with greater security surveillance and other measures. That leaves places like schools and market places.
dman, they do not always choose soft targets. Usually the "noob" terrorist cells do but the professionals hit what ever they can get at. Would you have considered 9/11 an easy job to carry out as a terrorist? While we did not hinder them in any way shape or form because we let the FAA regulate itself they still had to put years of prep into that attack.
If it was in fact a "Mob" hit the child was the target and it was probably either a warning or a punishment.
The choice of a School would be either for the School's name or for the purpose of letting their target audience know that they are capable of attacking wherever they please.
just muslims rounding up additional virgins for the afterlife. so sad, I pray for their families to get through this difficult time.
Geowill , that was then, this is now. That is why I referenced the tightened security surrounding most obvious terrorist targets.
On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 terrorists were able to bring sufficient weaponry aboard 4 planes, commandeer them and fly 3 of them into high-profile targets. I doubt seriously such a dramatic attack could occur today. If you have flown on a commercial airline in the intervening 11 years, you should some inkling of this change. If you have looked at changes around places such as reservoir dams and power plants, you have other indications as well.
What kind of self-respecting terrorist kills kids?
Never mind, there isn't any such thing as a self-respecting terrorist.
This scum defines how low you can go. A crime like this can only be described as chickensh*t.
Think about it. TERRORIST.............the object is to terrify and what is more terrifying than killing innocent kids. It just makes you sick. Blessings to the families involved.
There is NO self-respecting TERRORIST !
Prayers to the victim and survivors and family members.
"What kind of self-respecting terrorist kills kids?"
I was in Belfast for a while : schools were a favourate target of both sides.
Self respecting terrorist!!! Terrorists have NO SELF RESPECT.
Very sad..
Very odd. Bombers might be from outside the area who did not know that school was held on Saturday. They may have only intended to damage building or to cause fear. Then again a careful arson attack or careful building demolition type bombing would make more sense if you wanted to get back at remembering the judge and his wife without killing anyone. Whoever did this is in trouble with a lot more than law enforcement. The organized crime guys do not like to get involved in indiscriminate killing of children and they really do not like idiots who make it look like they do. Killing children in the fashion industry is not too bright either. The people who did this would be well advised to write out confessions, send them to the police, and swallow some suicide pills. They have really got more problems now then they did before.
It's no coincidence. All public schools hold classes on Saturday mornings. The bombs were planted there to kill. Timer was set 7:45, at the time the girls came in, just at that time. Had it happened at 7.30 there would have been no casualties. On the other hand, it happened shortly after the attack on the newly elected mayor, Mimmo Consales (in power for a week). There are too many 'coincidences'. A mob attack on a strong symbolic value: it has struck an institute dedicated to the wife of Giovanni Falcone, a few days after the twentieth anniversary of the Capaci massacre, and at Brindisi on the day of arrival of the Caravan mafia. The students in this High School represent all the young people from Sicily to Calabria and Puglia who have been the strongest element of rejection of the mafia culture of war and death. Could this also have contributed to the choice of this anti-mafia symbolic institution?
Sign of the times! Absolutely no respect for human life.
I agree with the folks saying the Mafia is probably not behind this. I believe this was some anarchist individual or group trying to make a name for themselves.
I have a name for them; Chicken@!$%#.
It sounds like the Taliban must be in town.
Where is the Mafia? It used to be that they would protect the neighborhood and not allow outside terrorists to attack their base of interest. When will the Mafia join with the Italian government and stop these outside influences from killing their children? The Mafia has the resources and reach to shut down any group that causes these acts to occur in Italy let alone Sicily.
HEY YOU FING COWARDS,you have to Kill Kids to get you're INSANE point across?
DESPICABLE FILTHY BUNCH!
COWARDS/MURDERERS
At the sound of the blast, students already inside the building ran outside of the school to see what happened.
If I heard an explosion outside a building I was in, I don't think I would be running outside to check it out.
If this is indeed disgruntled citizens then that is sad. There are non violent ways of getting your anger across.
Gotta "love" Anarchists - the looniest of the loony Left.
Not necessarily leftist. There are "right-wing" anarchists as well...probably just as many or more than the leftist.
Come on CandoMath...pick your legitimate battles against the liberal left. This is not one of them.
I just flew out of the airport in Brindisi the 9th. I have friends there and this concerns me a bit. I am certain it is related to the austerity measures but could be organized crime too as they have really cracked down on the mobs.
I was stationed in Brindisi 50 years ago. That area was the true backwater of Europe. Nothing to do there except chase the tourist girls catching the ferry to Corfu. Then I got stationed in Rome in the late 70s. Different story. The mafia was taking out courageous prosecutors, cops and judges. It was suicidal to take on the mob.
Bombs aimed at school girls? What is this, Afghanistan?
Those poor girls, those poor families. Heartfelt condolences!
Condolences to all affected by this. I hope they catch whoever is responsible.
damn Muslims
To automatically assume that Muslims are responsible without any evidence just makes it more difficult to find who actually did this.
i was being sarcastic, it was likely catholic mafia.
Don't worry Ed...most of us got your sarcasm. I didn't find it too humorous however. If you want to compare terrorism committed by Muslims to terrorism committed by Catholics, be my guest. Most of us know where that majority falls in. And just for the record, the IRA Catholic terrorists were anti-government, not anti-Muslim (compared to Muslim terrorists that murder non-Muslim "infidels" out of spite).
And another thing: the traditional Italian "Mob" (and American for that matter) generally has a strict code against killing innocents, especially children. So, this was not "mob" related in any sense relative to what the "mob" generally practices. Now, compare that to gangs in America and their carelessness about the lives of innocents, even children, caught in their crossfire. I'm in no way defending criminal "mobs" but everything needs to be put into perspective.
And just to clarify my point, the IRA Catholics didn't murder in the name of Jesus as if they were the modern day Crusades (as we are witnessing with the modern Muslim terrorist radicals who kill in the name of Muhammad and the Qur'an and who want us all to convert to their religion or die).
CanDoMath- While you were studying math you failed to attend your political science course. You can try to pin anarchy on the "Left" but of course you would fail! Anarchy is generally opposition to any form of government or authority. Anarchists will completely reject being described as left or right. They are against organized anything. That why anarchists are off in ones or twos looking to attack, agitate and destroy. They may be looney but you can't pin them on the right or the left of the political spectrum.
Brought to you by the religious do gooders of the Taliban. Hope you enjoyed it and there's plenty more to come.
uh, it was the CATHOLIC mafia you nit.
Dip@!$%# - where is your evidence that it was Taliban?
Well excuse the hell outta me. I phucked up and posted the wrong statement to the wrong article.
@Ed...........Hey a$$ wipe, I just re-read the article and it specifically states :
"There were no immediate claims of responsibility." "Italy has been marking the 20th anniversary of the Sicilian highway attack, but it was unclear if there was an organized crime link to Saturday's explosion."
In two other post's above you stated:
"damn Muslims"..........And........."i was being sarcastic, it was likely catholic mafia."
So, now I've got it, it's okay for you to joke or speculate but not anyone else. All I have left to say to you is PHA QUE MAN.
@Hal3504227..........I checked all your post's and can't find anything to bust your a$$ on, but, PHA QUE 2 anyway.
@ Hal and Ed........Also, if we were having this conversation in person I would say the same thing to both of you, straight up in your faces.
now lets see if hollywood can still make heroes out of these guys that bomb girls schools.
Whoever is responsible is nothing more than a coward.