Vittorio Feltri, 82, editorial director of Il Giornale, revealed that he was attacked by two individuals outside his home in Milan about a month ago.

"In the morning I leave the house around 10:00 a.m.," he reports in the story in Il Giornale, "to go to work. Usually, the security car is right outside my house, but on those days, visibility between the sidewalk and the car was limited due to some construction work on a wall. Two thugs approached me; I suspected one of them was about to take a canister, perhaps pepper spray, from his pocket ."

"I don't know if they were actually waiting for me," he later explained to Corriere della Sera, "or if they had targeted someone at random. They were in their thirties, well-built, and I couldn't tell if they were Italian or not ."

At that point, Feltri took courage: "He switched the stick from his left hand to his right, prepared himself, and then struck," Il Giornale recounts. "A sharp, direct, precise punch to the man holding the spray can. The two attackers, taken by surprise, quickly retreated and then fled, frightened and disoriented."

"I reacted instinctively," Feltri told Corriere. "I punched him. A good punch, I don't think they expected that from someone like me. I hit him full in the face, a lethal punch. I knocked him down with my left."
After scaring off the two criminals, Feltri calmly continued with his day: "I went straight to work."

(Unioneonline/D)