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ROME – A bomb exploded on Saturday outside an Italian high school namedafter the wife of an assassinated anti-Mafia prosecutor, killingone student and wounding at least seven others, officials said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and police weretrying to determine who had planted the bomb. But an anti-Mafiaprosecutor said it didn't appear to be the kind of attack thatorganized crime has carried out in Italy. The bombing also followeda spate of attacks against Italian officials and buildings by agroup of anarchists. The device went off a few minutes before 8 a.m. in the Adriaticport town of Brindisi in the country's south just as studentsmilled outside, chatting and getting ready for class at the mainlyall-girls Francesca Laura Morvillo Falcone vocational institute.Saturday is a school day in much of Italy. The school — which prepares students for jobs in fashion,tourism and social services — is named in honor of Morvillo,a judge who died along with her husband, anti-Mafia prosecutorGiovanni Falcone, in a 1992 highway bombing in Sicily by the CosaNostra. The student killed by the bomb was Melissa Bassi, 16, known to herfriends in Brindisi for her sunny smile and dream of becoming afashion designer, said Franco Scoditti, the mayor of the nearbytown of Mesagne. She died of her wounds at a hospital, saidBrindisi civil protection agency official Fabiano Amati. One of the shaken students who witnessed the attack told reportersthat a wounded girl, her hair charred, screamed the name "Melissa,Melissa" when she realized her friend was severely hurt. Bassi,along with several friends, had just gotten off a bus from Mesagnethat took them to their school. Amati said at least seven students were hospitalized, but some newsreports put the figure at 10. Graziella Di Bella, the health director at Perrino Hospital, saidmost of them suffered burns and shrapnel-like wounds, and severalwere undergoing surgery. "The explosion sent out fragments and flames ... pieces of iron,"Di Bella told Sky TG24 TV. She said four psychologists were workingwith the students. "One of the (injured) girls asked me: 'What dowe have to do with this?" Di Bella said, adding the students werefeeling a sense of "disorientation, terror" and anger. "It's pure terrorism," said Italy's national anti-Mafia prosecutorPiero Grasso after consulting in Brindisi with investigators. Hesounded angry as he left the scene of the bombing. "May no onetouch our kids!" he shouted as he got into a car. Dr. Paola Ciannamea, a Perrino Hospital physician who helped treatthe wounded, told reporters that one of them was a teenage girl whowas in a grave but stable condition after surgery. Premier Mario Monti, from the sidelines of the Group of Eightsummit in the United States, said he hopes the wounded quicklyrecover. Anti-Mafia prosecutor Cataldo Motta, based in the nearby port ofLecce, told reporters there were no claims of responsibility. Headded that the bombing didn't appear to be the work of organizedcrime, since fuel and not dynamite, the Mafia's traditional choiceof explosive, was used. Motta said the "international terrorism"angle was unlikely, but stressed that investigators had not ruledout any hypothesis. Italy has been marking the 20th anniversary of the attack on theSicilian highway that killed the prosecutor and his wife, but itwas unclear if there was an organized crime link to Saturday'sexplosion. Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri, in charge of domesticsecurity, said she was "struck" by the fact that the school wasnamed after the slain hero and his wife, but she cautioned thatinvestigators at that point "have no elements" to blame the schoolattack on organized crime. "It's not the usual (method) for the Mafia," she told Sky in aphone interview. The Sicilian-based Cosa Nostra usually targetsspecific figures, such as judges, prosecutors, turncoats or rivalmobsters in attacks, and not civilian targets such as schools. Saturday's bombing is an attack of "unprecedented cruelty. The bigproblem now is to get intelligence" on the bombing, saidCancellieri. National police chief Antonio Manganelli told Sky TG24 that Italy's"best investigators" had been dispatched to Brindisi. Outside the school, textbooks and notebooks, their pages flutteringin the breeze, and a backpack littered the street near where thebomb exploded. At the sound of the blast, students inside theschool ran outside to see what had happened. Officials initially said the bomb was in a trash bin outside theschool, but later the Italian news agency ANSA said the device wasplaced on a low wall ringing the building and near the bin. Thewall was damaged and charred from the blast. Sky TG24 said thedevice included three containers of fuel. The school's principal, Angelo Rampino said the bomb, whichreportedly had a timer component, went off at a time when studentsare known to be flocking to school. "It was done to kill thegirls," said Rampino . The bombing follows a spate of attacks against Italian officialsand government or public buildings by a group of anarchists,including the shooting and wounding of an official from a nuclearengineering firm, which is part of a state-controlled company. Ananti-nuclear anarchist group that previously had targeted Italy'stax collection agency claimed responsibility for the shooting. Authorities have said the Italian anarchists have worked in closecontact with Greece-based anarchists. Brindisi is a major point ofdeparture for ferries between Italy and Greece, but there was noimmediate indication from investigators of any Greek link. The attacks and threats lodged against authorities prompted thegovernment earlier in the week to assign bodyguards to 550individuals, and deploy 16,000 law enforcement officers nationwide. Brindisi is a lively port town in Puglia, the region in thesoutheastern "heel" of the Italian boot-shaped peninsula. Anorganized crime syndicate known as the Sacred United Crown has beentraditionally active there, but crackdowns have been widelyconsidered by authorities to have reduced the organization's power. I am an expert from gasstrutspring.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Adjustable Gas Springs , Bed Gas Struts Manufacturer, Industrial Gas Springs,and more.
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