A thief attacked a carabiniere with a knife and was injured when the soldier, in order to defend himself, fired two shots with his service weapon : the first at the top and the second at the legs.
The owner of the house where the thief was trying to enter was also injured in the attack, having been accidentally hit in the foot by a ricochet shot.
The episode happened last night in Cesenatico. In a note the Arma emphasizes that before shooting the soldier ordered the thief, without success, to throw the knife . The man was arrested.
The military intervened after a report of an attempted home burglary by a man armed with a knife. After acquiring some video surveillance images, they immediately found the perpetrator in the area, "armed and in a likely altered state".
But "at the first attempt by the military to control and disarm him, he reacted by threatening them, trying to attack them with a knife and throwing blunt objects at them in an attempt to escape on foot again," reads a note from the force.
The thief was chased with the help of a second crew and reached in Largo San Giacomo where, as the military approached, he climbed over the fence of a house and tried to enter the house from a French window at the back.
Here he was immediately reached by the Carabinieri "who attempted to contain and stop him, using several of the tools they had available, which did not have adequate effects, while the man continued to try to force the door as well as brandishing and attempting to hit the soldiers with violent blows ".
At that point a carabiniere pulled out his weapon, ordering the man to throw the knife. Nothing doing, the thief tried to attack him and the soldier, having avoided several stabs, "was forced to fire several gunshots, first at the top and then at the lower limbs, managing to neutralize and block him" .
One of the shots fired ricocheted and hit the window and the foot of the owner of the house , who had been awakened by the burglar alarm that had gone off and who, frightened by the situation, had positioned herself behind the window.
The man was subsequently taken to Bufalini Hospital in Cesena for surgery, where he was sedated for his altered state, admitted and placed under guard, under arrest, for aggravated personal injury, resisting a public official and aggravated violation of domicile. The woman was also taken and treated at the Cesena hospital, as was one of the soldiers who suffered a cut wound to one hand.
(Unioneonline/L)
