Crime: One dead in knife attack in Milan

A man grabs a knife on the shelf in a supermarket, attacks bystanders and randomly stabs passers-by.

Crime: One dead in knife attack in Milan

A man grabs a knife on the shelf in a supermarket, attacks bystanders and randomly stabs passers-by. In the middle of the after-work shopping, the 46-year-old kills an employee of the shop on the outskirts of Milan and injures other people, some seriously. Among the injured is a Spanish professional soccer player who happens to be in the mall with his family. The attacker is overpowered by a former footballer and other people before the carabinieri arrive.

The bloody deed on Thursday caused consternation in the Mediterranean country. Attilio Fontana, the president of the northern Italian region of Lombardy, speaks of a "bitter evening" on Facebook. Also, because almost at the same time, just an hour's drive away on Lake Como, a carabiniere shot his commander at the station, then entrenched himself and was only arrested by special forces in the morning.

Is the alleged perpetrator mentally ill?

The attack took place around 6:30 p.m. in the “Milano Fiori” shopping center on the southern outskirts of Milan. As leaked from the first interviews with the alleged perpetrator, he was mentally ill and could not stand "all the happy people". The media quoted the investigators as saying on Friday. The Japanese term hikikomori, which describes people who live extremely withdrawn and have little contact with the outside world, was also mentioned.

The 46-year-old attacked several people, on Friday there was talk of one dead and four others injured. Among them was the professional footballer Pablo Marí from the English top club FC Arsenal, who is on loan to AC Monza this season. The 29-year-old was in the store with his family, according to Monza's managing director Adriano Galliani, and was pushing his young child in the stroller when he was stabbed in the back.

Soccer player Pablo Marí underwent surgery

Marí was flown to a clinic and operated on Friday. According to the club, the operation on two muscles was successful. After two or three days, the player can leave the clinic. After that, a downtime of two months is predicted.

"He says he was lucky," Galliani said the night after a visit to the hospital. No major organs were injured in the attack. Perhaps his size saved him, Galliani suggested, considering the 1.93m tall Marí.

A 47-year-old employee at the store was less fortunate, dying in the attack. Eyewitnesses reported that there could have been more victims. The attacker, however, slipped with the knife in his hand as he walked through the store. As a result, other people were able to pin him to the ground. One of those men was ex-soccer player Massimo Tarantino. "He screamed, that's it," said the former Serie A professional to journalists. He himself is not a hero.

The supermarket chain Carrefour, in whose branch in the "Milano Fiori" shopping center the attack happened, decided to remove all sharp objects, such as knives, from the shelves throughout Italy. It was feared that the attack could provoke imitators.

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