Venice's chief prosecutor vowed on Monday that his team will eventually catch a mysterious Italian serial bomber who at the weekend staged the latest in a 12-year string of attacks.
"We haven't given up. We're determined to get him. But we must be patient," said Vittorio Borraccetto, as investigators studied material gathered after Saturday's incident at a port near Venice. A 28-year-old man was walking with his girlfriend along the seafront at Porto Santa Margherita when he found a corked wine bottle with a sheet of rolled-up paper inside wedged
between some rocks.
Intrigued by what he thought was a message in a bottle he picked it up and pulled out the cork. The bottle exploded, leaving Massimiliano Bozzo without his thumb and two fingers on his left hand.
He was also wounded in the chest and neck, while his 24-year-old girlfriend suffered damage to her eardrums and was cut by flying glass.
Police were doing tests on Monday on a battery, a spring and other articles believed to have been part of the bomb's trigger mechanism.
It is still not 100% sure that Italy's so-called 'Unabomber' was behind the blast but Borraccetto admitted the incident bore all the hallmarks. "I understand that public opinion wants quick answers. but the investigation is extremely complex," he said.
The Unabomber is believed to be responsible for some 30 incidents involving booby-trapped objects in northeast Italy since 1994. He has planted explosives in beach umbrellas, cigarette lighters, eggs and tubes of tomato concentrate and mayonnaise. Some of his devices - such as Easter eggs, felt-tipped pens and jars of chocolate spread - have clearly been aimed at harming children.
In April 2003, he was blamed for a booby-trapped pen which exploded in the hands of a nine-year-old girl who was out on a picnic with her family. The girl lost three fingers on her right hand and the sight in her right eye.
A special pool of investigators was subsequently created to track down the serial bomber. Despite collecting some DNA evidence, investigators have so far come up with no solid leads in their bid to capture the culprit. The serial attacker was dubbed the 'Unabomber' after America's notorious Theodore Kaczynski who was jailed for life in 1998 after a 17-year mail-bomb campaign which killed three people and injured 29.
Italian police believe the person active in the Venice area is similar to Kaczynski in being an intelligent but reclusive middle-class male who possibly still lives at home with his parents. The first incident attributed to the Unabomber occurred
on August 21, 1994, when a pipe-bomb exploded at a country fair near Pordenone injuring four people.
