The day after the terrible investment in the center of Modena which caused eight injuries and shocked Italy, the Emilian city woke up in shock, deeply shaken by the fury of an inexplicable violence, which still has not found any explanations. Five people are still hospitalized between Modena and Bologna, while three have already been discharged. Two women had their legs amputated. President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited the victims in the Maggiore hospitals in Bologna and Baggiovara (Modena), they stopped and greeted and thanked the doctors and healthcare workers, they met Luca Signorelli, the citizen who, with courage and blood, stopped Salim El Koudri, the 31-year-old man who drove his car at very high speed towards pedestrians and then, getting out of the car, threw himself at them with a knife.
Modena needs to find itself, come together and feel united in the face of such a tragic event. Over 1,500 citizens gathered in Piazza Grande this evening to express closeness and solidarity to the injured. The collective demonstration – not a political demonstration but an expression of solidarity and civic sense as demonstrated by the chosen slogan “Modena united” – was convened by the mayor Massimo Mezzetti, who thanked the institutions, the health workers, the police forces, the citizens, urged the city to remain a strong, cohesive, supportive community, not to give in to hatred and fear.
Salim El Koudri is accused of massacre and injuries. During the interrogation he made use of the right not to answer. The fact seems to be placed “in a situation of psychiatric distress”, said the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi, at the end of a meeting at the prefecture in Modena.
No elements have emerged from the ongoing investigations that suggest religious radicalization or links with jihadist or subversive groups. The prevailing hypothesis, at the moment, remains that of an act attributable to mental problems from which the man suffers and for which he has been treated: since 2022 he had already been “attended by the mental health center for schizoid disorders”.
