Italy: One killed, several hurt in bomb attack outside school

In Italy, one student has been killed and six others wounded after a bomb exploded outside a school in the southern city of Brindisi, Agence France Presse reported.

Media reports said a 16-year-old girl did not survive the attack, which took place about 7.45 am local time at the Francesca Morvillo Falcone school.

At least six other students are reported injured, two of them seriously, Reuters quoted officials as saying.

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An official at the Civil Protection Authority told Reuters it was possible that two devices had been detonated: "Given the effect of the explosion, it appears that this was something quite powerful."

Local emergency officials said the students had been on their way to school when the blast occurred.

AFP said the devices appear to have been left in backpacks in front of the school, which is named after the wife of the famous anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone. The couple was killed by a bomb in Sicily in May 1992, almost exactly 20 years ago.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the BBC, but the mayor of Brindisi, Mimmo Consales, has reportedly blamed the local mafia. 

However, Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri told Italian TV that the attack was "not the usual [method] for the mafia," the Associated Press said.

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