Italicus Express bombing 1974
| Italicus Express massacre | |
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Memorial (Plaque)
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| Location | San Benedetto Val di Sambro |
| Coordinates | 44°12′29″N 11°11′23″E / 44.20806°N 11.18972°ECoordinates: 44°12′29″N 11°11′23″E / 44.20806°N 11.18972°E |
| Date | August 4, 1974 01:23 (UTC+1) |
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Attack type
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| Deaths | 12 |
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Non-fatal injuries
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48 |
| Perpetrators | Unknown members of Ordine Nero |
The Italicus Express massacre (Italian: Strage del treno Italicus) was a terrorist bombing in Italy on a train of the public rail network. During the early hours of 4 August 1974, the bomb attack killed 12 people and wounded 48. Responsibility was claimed by the neo-fascist terrorist organization Ordine Nero.
The Italicus Express was a night train of the Ferrovie dello Stato on which, during the early hours of 4 August 1974, a bomb exploded killing 12 people and injuring 48. The train was travelling from Rome to Munich and having left Florence about 45 minutes earlier, was approaching the end of the long San Benedetto Val di Sambro tunnel under the Apennines. The bomb had been placed in the 5th passenger car of the train and exploded at 01:23. Under its own momentum the train reached the end of the tunnel. The effects of the explosion and subsequent fire would have been even more terrible had it remained inside the confined space of the tunnel. Former Prime Minister of Italy Aldo Moro had been on the train on 3 August, but disembarked before the train left Rome.
The following day, the fascist terrorist group Ordine Nero (Black Order) issued a statement in these terms:
"We took revenge for Giancarlo Esposti. We wanted to show the nation that we can place a bomb anywhere we want, whenever and however we please. Let us see in autumn; we will drown democracy under a mountain of corpses."
Giancarlo Esposti was killed on 30 May 1974 according to Novopress. This was two days after the Piazza della Loggia bombing.
Aurelio Fianchini, a leftist militant having just escaped from prison, told the press that the bomb was placed in the Italicus Express by Mario Tuti's subversive commando formed by Piero Malentacchi, who effectively placed the explosive in the fifth passenger car of the Italicus Express at the Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station, Luciano Franci and Margherita Luddi. They received the order from the Italian fascist terrorist organizations Fronte Nazionale Rivoluzionario ("revolutionary national front") and Ordine Nuovo.
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