An improvised explosive device (IED)
was found in the car of a Rome heritage official on Wednesday.
The spray can containing gunpowder and a rudimentary fuse was
placed in the winscreen-wiper engine of Marco Doria, head of a
panel on revamping Rome's historic parks and villas.
The alarm was sounded in the late afternoon after suspicious
looking wires were found spouting from the front of the vehicle.
The area was cordoned of and a bomb squad defused the homemade
bomb.
Experts said it could have gone off.
Doria had recently received death threats because of his work
and had been assigned a police escort, which has now been placed
on high alert.
"This is an extremely serious incident and I express my full
solidarity [with Doria]," said Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi.
The centre-left Democratic Party (PD) candidate in autumn's
mayoral election, former economy minister Roberto Gualtieri,
said Doria had been targeted because "he had the courage to
denounce illegal building work and other irregularities.
"He has become the target of cowardly intimidatory acts and we
will not leave him on his own".
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