Rimini, 29 April 2024 – Tragedy at the port. A 53-year-old businessman from Rimini, Massimo Belletti, committed suicide yesterday by throwing his car at full speed into the body of water in front of the Bussola bar. The attempts to save him by Hazem Zakzouk, a 43-year-old Egyptian fisherman who was there at the bar at the time and who promptly dove into the water, were useless. “The windows were partially rolled down, the doors were locked. I broke a window and grabbed him by the arm, but he kept repeating to me: I want to die, I want to die. There was nothing I could do”, says the fisherman, who also injured his hand trying to save him.
The intervention after the tragedy; the fisherman who tried to save him (photo Migliorini)
The tragedy occurred around 12.45pm. At that time the area was full of people. Some went to the seaside, some walked on the docks. A crowd of curious people immediately gathered in the area, also because there were those who said that there were also children, his children, in the car with the man. A version also due to the fact that some had heard the screams of children at the time of the tragedy. The police and carabinieri cordoned off the area in via Sinistra del porto, while the coast guard and divers from the financial police and fire brigade intervened on site. And it was they who discovered that inside the car (a white Volkswagen) there was only Massimo Belletti, an entrepreneur, one of the two partners of the construction company Belletti & Baroni. A letter was found in the car in which the man explained the reasons for his actions.
Before launching into the port, as a witness says, Belletti thought about it for a long time. “He had parked outside here – say some people from the La Bussola bar – He was here for a while, looking at the port”. No one could imagine that he was contemplating the desperate gesture. “I passed with the dog and saw him get into the car. After a few seconds I heard a big bang, I turned and saw the car in the port”, says a woman who lives in the area. And at that point Hazem dived in to save him: “I tried in every way, but he didn’t want to. He kept repeating to me: I want to die”.
Manuel Spadazzi
