MILAN – Flights out of Milan’s Malpensa airport were suspended Monday and a terminal building evacuated after a man smashed his car into the terminal and was shot by a police officer after trying to stab him. Airport authorities quickly ruled out a terrorist attack.
“A Tunisian man… who was in a car with his wife and three children tried to smash into the terminal,” a security source the airport told AFP. “He then got out of the car with a knife in his hand and threatened a police officer. The officer tried to calm him,” he said. “When the man threw his knife at the officer, the officer shot him in the foot,” the source added.
The Tunisian “did not have terrorist intentions,” Giuseppe Bonomi, head of the SEA airport authority in Milan, told a press conference soon after the attack. The man had acted in a “moment of madness” according to a local police source. His wife, reported to be Italian, and children were being questioned by police, ANSA news agency reported. Arrivals at Malpensa continued as normal.
