EN
14 December 2011 - 06:43 AMT

Two African street vendors killed in Florence

An Italian gunman with fascist sympathies went on a rampage in Florence on Tuesday, December 13, killing two African street vendors and wounding three others in broad day light before shooting himself dead.

Gianluca Casseri, 50, caused panic when he opened fire on a group of Senegalese street traders at a market in Piazza Dalmazia, on the northern outskirts of the city, killing two men and seriously wounding another.

He then jumped into a white car and drove off. Witnesses said the owner of a newspaper stall tried to block him but the gunman told him that unless he got out of the way he would be the next victim.

Casseri appeared a short time later at San Lorenzo market, in the centre of Florence, where he opened fire again with a large. 357 Magnum hand gun, wounding two more Senegalese hawkers.

As dozens of armed police officers closed in, he then drove into an underground car park and turned the gun on himself, shooting himself in the mouth as he sat in his Volkswagen Polo.

Police said Casseri, from the town of Pistoia in Tuscany, had links to a far-Right, anti-immigration movement called Casa Pound, The Telegraph reported.