Italy PM Meloni heads to Modena after car-ramming, cancels Cyprus meeting - VOUX MAG

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Sunday, May 17, 2026

Italy PM Meloni heads to Modena after car-ramming, cancels Cyprus meeting

Italy PM Meloni heads to Modena after car-ramming, cancels Cyprus meeting

MILAN, May 17 (Reuters) - Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will travel to Modena on Sunday, a ‌day after several people were injured in a ‌car-ramming incident there, cancelling a meeting in Nicosia with Cyprus' president in ​order to make the trip, government sources said.

Reuters The car that drove into pedestrians is removed from the scene after several people were injured in the center of the northern Italian city of Modena, Italy, May 16, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer The car that drove into pedestrians is removed from the scene after several people were injured in the center of the northern Italian city of Modena, Italy, May 16, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer The car that drove into pedestrians is removed from the scene after several people were injured in the center of the northern Italian city of Modena, Italy, May 16, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer

Several injured after car drives into pedestrians in Italian city of Modena

Italy's President Sergio Mattarella will also travel to the Italian northern city, the sources added.

A 30-year-old man, born in Italy and of ‌North African origin, ⁠drove a car into a crowd in the city centre on Saturday, injuring eight people, ⁠four of them seriously.

The man attempted to flee and stabbed one of three passersby who tried to stop him. ​He was ​later arrested by police.

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Modena's ​prosecutors said in a ‌statement on Sunday that the suspect is under investigation for massacre and personal injury, adding that efforts are under way to establish the motive behind his actions.

They said the man struck pedestrians in the crowded city centre, which ‌has more than 180,000 residents, "in ​an indiscriminate, random and deliberate manner".

"The ​man had received ​treatment for mental health issues in 2022 ‌due to schizoid personality disorder, ​after which he ​went off the radar," Modena's mayor, Massimo Mezzetti, told broadcaster RaiNews24 late on Saturday.

Among those seriously injured, ​two had suffered ‌the loss of their legs, with one in ​a life-threatening condition, the prosecutors added.

(Reporting by Sara ​Rossi, editing by Kirsten Donovan)