Train
station attack shocks Italians
May 01, 2007
IN a country where violent crime on public transport is rare, one
murder has shocked this nation.
Last week, a young commuter was stabbed in the eye with an umbrella
at Rome's main train station.
Then on Sunday, Italian TV and news agencies reported that police
have detained two suspects in connection with the killing.
Throughout the day, news programmes played video from surveillance
cameras from Rome's Termini rail station.
Newspapers ran front-page photos of the two suspects, dressed in
white pants and white jackets, walking up a station staircase after
the attack.
State TV and Italian news agencies reported that the two women were
tracked down by police at a house in the small town of Tolentino,
about 250km from Rome.
The ferocity of the attack on Thursday shocked the nation.
MissVanessa Russo, 22, died of wounds after being stabbed in the
eye with the umbrella's tip while on her way to work.
News reports said that police were investigating whether the victim
had argued with the two women shortly before being stabbed, or had
made clear that she suspected them of trying to pick her
pocket.
A Rome police official Alberto Intini said that fingerprints found
on the umbrella were fragmentary, but investigators hoped to get
enough DNA traces off the umbrella to use in a prosecution.
Although rare, umbrella stabbings have been known to occur
before.
In the US in 1998, a man ended up in a critical condition after
being stabbed in the eye with an umbrella for apparently bumping
into another pedestrian.
An 18-year-old in Australia was fatally stabbed with an umbrella in
2003. MrChris Williams suffered severe head injuries after he got
into an argument with a 14-year-old boy at a tram stop. -- Wire
services.