words by Gabi Logan
An explosion outside the Francesca Laura Morvillo Falcone Professional Institute in Brindisi on Saturday morning killed a 16-year-old girl and left others wounded and severely burnt.
At 7.45 am on the 19th of May, shortly after a school bus from the town of Mesagne dropped off a group of students, a bomb made from three bottles of gas connected with electrical wires exploded from its
hiding place in a paper recycling collection unit across from the entrance to the school. The force of the explosion shattered windows and threw pieces of debris hundreds of meters from the explosion site.
Melissa Bassi, a 16-year-old studying to be a social worker, was brought to the emergency room in critical condition and died an hour later. Her classmate Veronica arrived in dire condition, but has stabilized after two surgeries at the Vito Fazzi Hospital in Lecce. Two other students are also recovering from surgery, one from wounds and arterial damage and another from first and second degree burns over 20 per cent of her body, while several others are in the burn unit.
Investigators have arrested, questioned, and released two individuals in conjunction with the case. Though no group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack, they believe a lone psychopath is responsible. Video images of the bomber have been recovered from sources including local traffic cameras and show a 50-to-55-year-old male activating the device via remote control.
Initially, the mafia was believe to be involved in the attack, as the school is named after prominent anti-mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone, who died with his wife and three bodyguards in an explosion 20 years ago Wednesday. Anti-mafia specialists have tentatively ruled out mafia involvement due to the rudimentary nature of the device and the fact that the action would be contradictory to their typical methods of community interaction.
