A 16-year-old girl died and five other teens were seriously injured in southern Italy Saturday in a bomb blast outside a vocational school, with local media pointing to a possible mafia link.
There were scenes of chaos and carnage after a powerful blast went off at the entrance of the building as students were arriving for classes at the Francesca Morvillo Falcone school in the city of Brindisi.
“I was opening the window and the blast wave hit me. I saw kids on the ground. All blackened. Their books on fire. It was terrifying,” an employee at the prosecutor’s office next to the school told the Repubblica daily. Another eyewitness told local television: “I had just gone into the bar in front of the school. I saw everything falling.”
A tearful middle-aged woman, who was still visibly under shock, said: “It was an incredibly powerful explosion. I saw a girl lying on the ground and another one who got up and started shouting: ‘Melissa! Melissa!’“
The victim was identified as Melissa Bassi, local emergency officials said. The device was composed of three gas canisters with a timer device hidden in a container next to a wall just outside the school, Italian media reported, citing investigators. The scene of the blast showed debris over a wide area.
Local emergency official Fabiano Amati told the news channel Sky Tg24 one 16-year-old girl “did not survive”.
Hospital official Paola Ciannamea told reporters that one of the injured girls, who is also 16 and had initially been reported as dead by police sources cited by Italian media, was alive but in a “very serious condition”.
The four other victims being treated are all suffering from extensive burns including one who risks losing her legs and another who has serious injuries to her chest, Italian media cited a statement from the hospital as saying.
The blast went off around 7:45 am (0545 GMT). Most Italian schoolchildrn and students attend classes on Saturday.
Teenager killed, five seriously hurt in Italy school blast
