Bus hijacked in Italy, passengers freed

Three men armed with guns and knives hijacked a bus in northern Italy today, wounding a policeman before freeing all the passengers…

Three men armed with guns and knives hijacked a bus in northern Italy today, wounding a policeman before freeing all the passengers, police sources said.

One source said the three, believed to be North Africans, had stopped the bus on a street between the Piedmont cities of Novara and Alessandria, and had set it on fire after allowing all passengers to get off.

Police captured one of the hijackers.

Another was barricaded into a nearby farmhouse and the third one was on the run.

"A policeman who was not on duty but interevened has been stabbed, but he is not in serious condition," said an Interior Ministry official.

  • Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date

  • Sign up for push alerts to get the best breaking news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone

  • Listen to In The News podcast daily for a deep dive on the stories that matter