A number of people have been injured after at least one gunman apparently targeting black people opened fire in the Italian city of Macerata, according to reports.
The mayor of Macerata, located about 125 miles (200km) east of Rome, said a “person who sowed panic in our city” was captured after locals were told to stay inside for their own safety.
“The person who sowed panic in our city this morning was captured. You can get out of your homes and pick up the kids from school!” Mayor Romano Carancini said in a statement posted on local Facebook sites.
Just an hour earlier, officials had told locals to stay indoors as an “armed man in a car is shooting in the city.”
The website of newspaper Corriere della Sera said a man fired from a car window at two young African migrants shortly after 11am. (10am UK time) Saturday, injuring one of them. A short while later another migrant and an African woman were shot.
Italian police confirmed that all those injured were of “foreign nationality.”
It was unclear how many perpetrators were involved but Italian newspaper La Repubblica said there may have been two people in a black Alfa Romeo.
At least seven people were injured in the attack, according to local reports, and five have been taken to hospital, according to local media reports.
Investigators are reportedly scrambling to examine CCTV images to gain more information about the attacks.
Police and carabinieri have activated road blocks in various parts of the city.
The shootings happened just days after the body of an 18-year-old Italian woman was discovered cut up and hidden in two suitcases. A Nigerian migrant has been arrested in connection with the death.
Local reports have linked the incidents.
