Thaindian News

Rome, May 19 (IANS) Two 16-year-old schoolgirls were killed and several others injured Saturday in a remote-controlled bomb blast outside a vocational training school in southern Italy, media reports said.

The bombing took place around 8 a.m. in Brindisi in Puglia region, as the students were entering the school building, Xinhua reported citing Rai television. At least seven students were injured.

Fabiano Amati, a regional minister, said the scene after the blast was “dramatic”.

“There were school back-packs and notebooks everywhere. Many windows of the nearby buildings were broken,” he told CNN.

Police found three gas cylinders at the site that were detonated with a remote control.

The devices were concealed behind a trash can, around 50 metres from the school entrance.

City Mayor Mimmo Consales told CNN one of the girls died during surgery from the wounds she sustained in the blast.

It was not clear why the school was targeted or who carried out the attack.

Puglia governor Nichi Vendola said it could be “either a mafia or a political terrorism attack”.

The Francesca Morvillo Falcone school is named after the wife of prominent anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, who was killed in a bomb attack in 1992.

The government recently announced a plan to increase counter-terrorism intelligence, saying 14,000 sites in the country were currently considered potential targets.