Three men have been arrested following the death of a bus driver in a clash between rival basketball fans in Italy. These are hooligans from the Sebastiani Rieti club aged 20, 31 and 53, as the Italian police reported. A fourth man is being investigated for aiding and abetting.
The three men are considered the main suspects in connection with the fatal attack on a 65-year-old bus driver who was the second driver on board the fan bus of the Pistoia Basket basketball team on Sunday evening.
He was seriously injured in a stone-throwing attack and later died. According to media reports, unknown people hurled stones and other objects at the windshield of the bus that was driving supporters of the second division team Pistoia Basket home after an away game in Rieti. A brick went through the glass and hit the driver, who was sitting at the front next to the handlebars.
Those arrested had already been noticed at other games in the city of Rieti in the past, where there had been tensions with opposing fan groups. The investigators tracked down the suspects through police officers who escorted the fan bus.
They observed masked men fleeing into parked vehicles under a bridge after the attack. One of these cars was stopped. In the course of the investigation, suspicions against the trio, who are now in custody for murder, were confirmed.