Several injured after car ploughs into crowd in Italy's Modena

Published on 16/05/2026 - 20:19 GMT+2

Several radical were injured aft a car ploughed into pedestrians successful the metropolis centre of Modena, successful bluish Italy.

Eight radical were injured, 4 of them critically, Mayor Massimo Mezzetti told Italian TV. He said a pistillate pinned against a store model whitethorn necessitate the amputation of some legs.

Of the critically injured, 2 radical person been transferred to the Maggiore Hospital successful Bologna and 2 to the infirmary successful Modena.

The operator was identified arsenic a 31-year-old Italian national of Moroccan origin, surviving successful the state of Modena, with nary erstwhile convictions. He was detained and is being questioned astatine constabulary office arsenic authorities enactment to find whether helium was nether the power of substances oregon acted deliberately, the politician said.

Early eyewitness accounts said the operator "aimed for the sidewalk, hitting a bike, past crashed portion slamming head-on into a woman, severely wounded with some legs crushed". The car past crashed into a store window.

According to the mayor’s account, the car headed for the pavement, besides hitting a bicycle earlier crashing into the woman. "They saw him with a limb successful his manus but helium did not negociate to stab anyone. It appears that helium tried to onslaught someone," the politician added.

Government monitoring

The Italian authorities is pursuing the developments successful Modena closely, according to authoritative parliament sources. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is reportedly successful interaction with the interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, and with the undersecretary to the premier minister’s bureau liable for the country's security, Alfredo Mantovano, to person real-time updates connected the result of the questioning and the enactment of the anti-terrorism unit.

"What happened contiguous successful Modena, wherever a antheral ran implicit respective pedestrians and past is reported to person stabbed a passer-by, is highly serious. I explicit my solidarity with the injured and their families. I would besides similar to convey the citizens who bravely intervened to halt the perpetrator and the law-enforcement officers for their action. I person spoken to the politician and I stay successful changeless interaction with the authorities to show however the concern develops. I spot that the idiosyncratic liable volition beryllium held afloat accountable for his actions," Meloni aboriginal wrote connected X.

Modena's mayor, Mezzetti, thanked "those citizens who showed courageousness and civic duty". He added that "we request to recognize what's down this act. But it was a melodramatic event."

"I americium profoundly shaken. Whatever it was, it was highly serious. If it turns retired to beryllium an attack, that would beryllium adjacent much serious," Mezzetti said.