Parcel bomb explodes at Italian tax collecting agency, injuring director

[News_Editor]

Parcel bomb explodes at Italian tax collecting agency, injuring director

2011-12-10 16:20:43 GMT+7 (ICT)

ROME (BNO NEWS) -- A parcel bomb exploded at a tax collection agency in the Italian capital of Rome on Friday, injuring the director, the ANSA news agency reported on Saturday.

Police said they were treating the incident as a terrorist attack after a padded envelope was mailed to Equitalia agency, which collects taxes on behalf of the state. Marco Cuccagna, the agency's director-general, lost a finger when the mail bomb exploded.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti expressed his concern and support for the agency after the attack. "Equitalia has always done and continues to do its duty in total respect for the law," Monti said, as quoted by ANSA. "It is an essential function of the state and without it, it would not be possible to deliver services to our citizens and their families."

It was not immediately known who or which group was behind the attack, but police said they were investigating potential links to anarchist groups. Prosecutor Pietro Saviotti has launched an inquiry into the incident, according to ANSA.

The incident in Italy comes just a day after another bomb was sent to Josef Ackermann, the chief executive of Germany's Deutsche Bank. The bomb sent to Ackermann was defused but was fully operational, Frankfurt police said.

German police said an Italian anarchist group, the Federazione Anarchica Informale (FAI), had claimed responsibility for the attempted letter bomb attack. In a letter in Italian, rolled up inside the Frankfurt letter bomb, the group had said two more letter bombs were on their way.

Investigators in Rome said there may be a link between the two mail bombs, but German police said they had no evidence yet to support this. In 2010, FAI sent parcel bombs to the Chilean and Swiss embassies in Rome. Two people were injured when the bombs exploded.

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