AS MANY as four people are reported to have died after a man opened fire at the Palace of Justice in the Italian city of Milan before being arrested.
Officials said the gunman, identified by local media as Claudio Giardiello, was a defendant in a bankruptcy case.
The Ansa news agency said he shot a bankruptcy court judge, a lawyer and one other man. The fourth person is thought to have had a heart attack.
The suspect was arrested in the suburb of Vimercate as he fled on a motorbike.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said the “presumed assassin” was now being held at a carabinieri military police barracks in the Milan area.
‘Shut in’
The sound of gunfire sparked panic inside the Palace of Justice on Wednesday morning, with hundreds of people pouring down stairways towards the exits while police and military police officers searched for the gunman.
“All of a sudden we heard at least three or four shots,” lawyer Marcello Ilia told the AFP news agency outside the building.
“We tried to find out what was going on. There were suddenly lots of police officers who told us not to leave the room, they shut us in,” he said.
“After a few minutes we came out. They told us someone in a suit and tie was armed and at large in the court.”
Appeals court judge Giovanni Canzio told Ansa that the gunman had opened fire at the entrance to a courtroom before moving to another part of the building. He identified the dead judge as Fernando Ciampi
