Italian leader calls for an end to violence and division after gunman shoots six

Luca Traini is accused of having shot people in Macerata, Italy. Photo / AP

A man draped in Italy's tricolour flag wounded at least six people - all said to be African migrants - in a drive-by shooting in a central Italian city before being detained, authorities said.

The suspect, named by police and the Italian press as Luca Traini, 28, had been a candidate for the anti-immigrant Northern League party in municipal elections last year, according to a party spokeswoman.

The suspect's motive in the shootings in Macerata was not known, but a young Italian woman was gruesomely murdered in the city this past week, allegedly by a Nigerian immigrant, prompting a wave of anger in a nation where many were already seeking to reduce the entry of migrants.

The attack's connection to the Northern League was likely to unsettle Italy as it approaches national elections on March 4. Far-right groups have been gaining in the polls, and the Northern League looks as though it may have a chance to govern as a junior member of a coalition with other right-wing parties.

A police spokesman said Traini was detained near Macerata's central war memorial. A handgun was in the suspect's car, and the green-white-and-red flag of Italy was tied around his shoulders, the official said. Traini admitted his guilt as he was arrested, added the spokesman. The five men and one woman who were shot were expected to recover, Macerata Mayor Romano Carancini said.

Local news outlets said the man was detained after he stepped out of his black Alfa Romeo 147 near the memorial, gave a fascist salute, and shouted "Italy for the Italians". It was not clear whether the victims were Italian citizens.

After the attack, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni called on political leaders on all sides to stop a "cycle of violence".

He said: "Let's stop this risk, let's stop it now, let's stop it together," in a nationally televised statement from his residence, the Palazzo Chigi, in Rome. "Hate and violence won't be able to divide us."

More than 620,000 migrants, many of them African, have arrived in Italy since the beginning of 2014, contributing to a growing sense among Italians that the country was taking in far more people than it could handle.

Anti-immigrant sentiment has become a main theme in the campaign leading up to next month's elections. Northern League leader Matteo Salvini has vowed to expel 150,000 immigrants from Italy and close the country's borders to most new arrivals.

The murder in Macerata this past week of 18-year-old Pamela Mastropietro drew national attention to the city of 43,000 and added fuel to the debate on migration. Her dismembered remains were found packed into two suitcases. A 29-year-old Nigerian man, Innocent Oseghale, was charged with her murder.

"What was this maggot still doing in Italy? He wasn't fleeing war, he brought war to Italy," Salvini wrote on Facebook on Friday.

- Washington Post, Telegraph Group Ltd