More mischievous high jinks from those boisterous “youths” who love to play their pranks on the trains near Milan.

Many thanks to Gary Fouse for translating this article from Today Cronaca:

Brutal aggression/Lecco

Robbery with machete blows on train: Gang in handcuffs

The violence captured on security cameras on the regional train connecting Lecco and Milan: A group of foreign youths is arrested after having attacked and robbed a minor.

Two foreigners, ages 22 and 25, were arrested by Lecco police accused of robbery, aggravated injury, and illegal possession of weapons, after attacking a man on board a train, striking him with a machete. The alarm was sounded when a boy on board the regional train Lecco-Milan called the operations room of the Lecco police headquarters, reporting the presence of a foreign man who was threatening passengers while brandishing a large machete-type knife.

Robbery with machete blows on train

Agents of the Rail Police, having arrived at the train station of Olgiate Molgora, where in the meantime the train was halted, ascertained, also with the help of the Carabinieri of Merate and Brivio, that two non-EU citizens had just robbed a minor, causing injuries to his face using a large knife. The proceeds of the robbery, a cell phone and bag, were found on the two foreigners and were returned to the victim, who was treated at the scene by emergency medical personnel.

The weapon used to carry out the crime, on the other hand, was recovered hidden between two seats inside the train. The policemen therefore placed the two Central Africans under arrest, who were also charged with interrupting public service, given that the train resumed its regular route with a 180-minute delay from its normal timetable. Both youths, after being turned over to the competent judicial authority, were lodged at the detention facility at Lecco.

Four persons arrested

After further investigation, it was ascertained that the band of robbers was composed of a total of four individuals. The third subject, also a foreign youth, and initially reported to be on the loose, was later placed under arrest on July 25, in the area of Riccione, by personnel of the Railway Police subsection of Lecco and the PG Squad of the Railway Police in Lombardy. The last member of the group, who managed to disappear on the night of the incident, was identified by agents of the Railway Police of Lecco subsection, who, during the day on August 3, in concert with the prosecutor’s office in charge of the proceeding, arrested him as a person seriously suspected of a crime, which was then validated by the judge of instruction, who also issued an order for preventive custody in jail.

Subsequent investigation by the Lecco Carabinieri also determined the precise responsibility of one of the two Central Africans arrested in the act, who after a dispute for trivial reasons, on the evening of July 6 in Diaz Square in Lecco, struck another youth on the head with a large knife, causing a wound that was treated at the city hospital.