Italian police on Thursday probed deeper into the motivations of a man who has admitted setting off a bomb outside a vocational college in an attack that killed a 16-year-old girl and shocked the nation. Giovanni Vantaggiato, 68, was detained on Wednesday and has confessed to last month’s attack which also left five teenagers badly burned but prosecutors said they were not convinced by the motive he had provided. “Yes it was me. I built the bomb on my own,” Vantaggiato was quoted as telling investigators after a five-hour interrogation on Wednesday. “I lost it. What can you do about it?” he was quoted as saying. Prosecutor Cataldo Motta on Thursday told reporters: “He said he was having economic problems but the link to an attack like this is inexplicable.” The man reportedly told investigators that the blast was an act of vengeance aimed at a courtroom next to the college because of a judicial case in which he claimed to have been treated unfairly despite being a victim of fraud. “He gave very vague reasons without any credibility…. He did not really explain anything. He didn’t justify himself,” Motta said at a press conference in the southern city of Brindisi where the deadly attack took place. He said that the investigations were continuing and that police on Thursday had raided a fuel depot owned by the businessman near the city of Lecce. Motta said the married father-of-two had, however, confessed to building the bomb out of three gas canisters and a detonator and setting it off. “I bought fireworks and emptied them out, filling each canister with 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of gunpowder,” the suspect was quoted as saying. Italian media said he was “passive and submissive” during the interrogation and had asked investigators: “How long are you going to keep me in here?” Vantaggiato has been arrested on a charge of committing “a massacre with terrorist ends” even though he is believed to have acted alone, Motta said, adding that investigators believed the targets had been selected “at random”. “He achieved the aim of spreading terror,” the prosecutor said. Motta also said Vantaggiato had been identified through CCTV footage showing two cars — one registered in his name and another in his wife’s name. One car was seen at the scene when the bomb was put in place during the night and the second was seen in the moments before and after the blast. Chilling video footage leaked to the media shortly after the May 19 bombing showed a man setting off the bomb with a remote control.
