A bus driver has died after rival fans threw stones at a coach carrying supporters of an Italian basketball team.
Pistoia Basket fans were traveling on the highway near the town of Rieti, 80km (50 miles) northeast of Rome, when SRS Sebastiani Riti fans began throwing objects, according to local media.
Fans of Tuscany-based Pistoia were returning from a game between two second-tier sides, which their team won.
A large stone crashed through the windscreen and hit one of the two drivers on the head. Rafael Marianella, 65, was sitting in the front seat but was not driving at the time of the attack. He later died of his injuries.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the attack was an “unacceptable act of violence and madness”. She condoled with the victim’s family and said that the culprits will be brought to justice.
Police investigation is on to trace the culprits.
Italy’s sports minister Andrea Abodi described the attack as a “shocking attack” by “criminals who have become murderers and can never be called fans,” he said.
“This is not about basketball. These are criminals,” said Gianni Petrucci, president of Federbasket, the national basketball federation. He said he would work with legal authorities to respond to the attack.
“They are murderers, people with no present and no future,” he told national broadcaster RAI.
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