"Are we all here? Come on, let's go." This is what the bandits are talking and shouting after having attacked two armored vehicles late this afternoon on the Variante Aurelia at the exit of the southern tunnel of San Vincenzo (Livorno).
A commando armed to the teeth that shot, took the loot, set fire to vehicles to protect their escape and then tried to disappear. A well-known method of action in Sardinia, where in recent years numerous similar attacks have been carried out.
Some residents of the area filmed the scene, from the moment of the assault until the end: the accent of some of the participants (it is not known how many there were) is Sardinian.
What is certain is that the perpetrators of the robbery entered into action with two vehicles and managed to stop the convoy by assaulting one of the two vans and threatening the vigilantes with long weapons, then armed with rifles. Then the gang - about ten members - after having carried out the robbery went away in a southerly direction on board other vehicles.
The point chosen for the assault was not accidental: there the road narrows due to roadworks and it was easier to create the passage to block the armored vehicles.
The investigations are being followed by the investigative unit of the Carabinieri of Piombino. The traffic police, alerted at 18:50, the medical emergency services and the fire brigade also intervened on site.
A scene from a movie
A movie-like scene, some residents of San Vincenzo tell us, who witnessed the attack from the buildings near the highway: they heard a loud bang and some gunshots with a column of smoke that then rose from the fire of some vehicles that were in front of and behind the attacked armored vans. Some people picked up their smartphones and from those videos it was possible to clearly hear the bandits' Sardinian accent.
The means used for escape
A car and two vans, probably stolen, were used by the armed gang to block the two cash vans. The three vehicles are
were set on fire on purpose by the gang. According to initial reports, there were many men armed with rifles, who also used explosives. The loot would amount to several million euros.
(Unioneonline/E.Fr.)