It must have been a Sunday afternoon like any other, ruined only by clouds and a few drops of rain. But in Rimini the first weekend of real summer, after the solstice of June 21st, with many tourists arriving in the city and at the seaside, ended in blood.
The stabbing in the crowd
Two 18 year old boys were injured by a young man in his early twenties on the shoreline of Bathroom 44, on the afternoon of June 23rd. The establishment is one of the busiest on Sundays: here in the chiringuito near the sea shore they gather thousands of young people (and less young people) from aperitif time until late at night, in one of the areas historically least marked by news events. Yesterday afternoon, however, under the amazed eyes of thousands of people, the sirens of the police and ambulances were heard. At first it also seemed to the officers who intervened that there were two attackers. A young man, North African but legal on Italian territory, not resident in Rimini, was immediately sent arrested and is now in prison awaiting validation, following the orders of the prosecutor on duty Luca Bertuzzi. Another young man, also a regular North African but not resident in Romagna, was identified at nightarrested but immediately released: investigations into his whereabouts are underway but it has been ascertained that he was not the one who hit the boys with the blows.
An arrest
The alarm went off shortly after 7.30pm, when thousands of people usually begin to gather on the beach. Two people had been injured: one on the wrists the other on the abdomen. At first it seemed that two boys had approached them and asked them to hand over their wallets and cell phones. When they refused, the blows would be fired. The two 18-year-olds, residents of Cesena but who arrived in Rimini in the late afternoon for a few hours of relaxation and fun, are well and They are not in danger of life but yesterday evening they were transported to hospital. On Monday morning, they were interviewed by police officers. It is unclear whether the knife attack occurred afterwards an attempted robbery. In fact, the prosecutor’s hypothesis of crime in the events of Sunday evening is that of aggravated assault, the charge with which the arrested young man has currently been imprisoned, while that of attempted robbery has currently been excluded. The young man will now have to clarify his conduct before the magistrate and the Flying Squad.
