Italian gunman ‘decided to kill them all’ in revenge after hearing teenager was murdered by asylum seeker

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This handout picture released by the Italian Carabinieri Press Office on February 3, 2018 shows an Italian man arrested for suspected of wounding several foreign nationals in a drive-by shooting in Macerata. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:52am, 5 Feb 2018Updated: 7:17am, 5 Feb 2018

A far-right supporter suspected of wounding six Africans in a shooting spree in central Italy said the “trigger” for his attacks was the murder of an Italian woman allegedly by a Nigerian asylum seeker, media reports said on Sunday, with immigration shaping up to be a key issue in elections a month from now.

Luca Traini was arrested and taken into custody after drive-by attacks in the town of Macerata wounded five men and one woman from Ghana, Mali and Nigeria on Saturday.

The black car Alfa Romeo of a young man suspected of wounding several foreign nationals in a drive-by shooting, is blocked by police and Carabibieri enforcement at Macerata, on February 3, 2018. Photo: AFP

The shootings came a day after a Nigerian asylum seeker and drug dealer was arrested in the same town for the murder of an 18-year-old woman, whose dismembered body was discovered in suitcases.

“I was driving to the gym when I heard on the radio about the 18-year-old girl,” the daily Corriere della Sera quoted Traini as telling investigators. “Instinctively I turned around, I went home, I opened the safe and took the pistol and decided to kill them all.”

After the shootings, Traini, 28, allegedly got out of his car, made a fascist salute with a tricolour Italian flag draped over his shoulders and shouted “Viva Italia”, or “Long Live Italy”, and “Italy for Italians”, media reports said.