‘Mafia’ bomb kills teen girl in Italy school attack

Tragedy ... Melissa Bassi was killed in school bomb blast

MAFIA gangsters are suspected to be behind a bomb attack at a school which killed a young girl and injured seven others today. 

One of the victims is in a critical condition after the blast which happened as students were arriving at the college in Brindisi, southern Italy. 

Two huge explosions scattered deadly shrapnel across a wide area as the devices, connected to gas canisters and hidden in rucksacks, went off just before 8am at the Francesca Morvillo Falcone vocational school in the Adriatic port. 

The dead girl was Melissa Bassi, 16, from the nearby town of Mesagne, said mayor Franco Scoditti. She suffered horrific injuries in the blasts and was rushed to hospital but died a short while later.

Paramedics and police were immediately at the scene and TV footage showed the chaos as shocked students gathered outside the school 

Shrapnel from the canisters pierced shutters of nearby shops and blew out windows of flats. 

The school is named after the wife of gangbusting judge Giovanni Falcone; they were both murdered almost 20 years ago to the day. Investigators also linked the bombing to an anti-Mafia protest march today in Brindisi.

Emergency ... rescue services at scene of blast

City mayor Mimmo Consales has blamed the local Mafia network for what he called "an unprecedented attack". 

 

Consales said: "The name of the school and the planned anti-Mafia march is all too much of a coincidence.” 

He added that just two weeks ago a local anti-extortion racket campaigner had cheated death after a powerful bomb went off under his car. 

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said he was following developments “with apprehension” and paid tribute to the victims. 

Most Italian students have classes on Saturday mornings. Other Brindisi schools later sent their students home. 

First indications from security forces said the bomb had been placed in a container near the school. 

But newspaper La Republica said the devices had apparently been left in backpacks in front of the college.

Tragedy ... one killed in explosion

Anti-Mafia judge Falcone, his wife and their three bodyguards were killed on May 23 1992 when Sicilian Mafia bombers set off half a TONNE of dynamite on the road between Palermo’s airport and the city centre. 

Just two months later his successor Paolo Borsellino was also killed in a car bomb in Palermo as he visited the apartment block where his mother lived. 

Mayor Consales said there were “too many coincidences" in the Brindisi attacks. 

The European Caravan for Legality, is an anti-Mafia protest that left the capital Rome last month and was due to wind its away across Italy promoting initiatives against organised crime. 

Last week 35 people were arrested in a blitz by police across Puglia, the region of southern Italy where the Sacra Corona Unita crime syndicate is based.