A 31-year-old Italian national drove a vehicle at high speed into pedestrians on Via Emilia in central Modena on May 16, injuring eight people, before emerging from the car and stabbing a passer-by who attempted to stop him.
The perpetrator of yesterday’s car-ramming and stabbing attack in Modena, Salim El Koudri, has told investigators why he carried out the attack:
“I’m harassed, marginalized and I live in a racist country”
🇮🇹🇲🇦 pic.twitter.com/XQBOScxpCC
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 18, 2026
The suspect, identified as Salim El Koudri, born in Bergamo to a family of Moroccan origin, was subdued by bystanders and turned over to police. The Modena city prosecutor’s office stated Sunday that two women, aged 55 and 69, underwent leg amputations following the attack, with one remaining in a life-threatening condition. Prosecutors described the attack as carried out “in an indiscriminate, random and deliberate manner.”
A documented gap in El Koudri’s psychiatric treatment is now central to the investigation. Modena Prefect Fabrizia Triolo confirmed to the Associated Press that El Koudri had “been known to local mental health services for schizoid disorders.”
Italian broadcaster RaiNews reported he received treatment at a mental health center in the same province between 2022 and 2024, leaving a roughly two-year gap before the attack that authorities have not yet explained.
The Italian authorities have announced that yesterday’s car-ramming attack in Modena by Salim El Koudri was not a case of terrorism but due to “mental health issues”
🇮🇹🇲🇦 pic.twitter.com/G4yardYJSn
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 17, 2026
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told journalists Sunday that the attack appeared linked “to a situation of psychiatric distress” and confirmed that terrorism has been ruled out. “Nothing escaped us from the standpoint of counterterrorism prevention,” Piantedosi said.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella visited victims at hospitals in Modena and Bologna on Sunday. Following the visits, Meloni praised the citizens who subdued the attacker, posting a picture on X with a wounded bystander and writing that “the heart chooses to do good, even when that involves a risk.”
Ciò che rende eroica una persona normale è l’istante in cui il cuore sceglie di fare il bene, anche quando questo comporta un rischio. Gli eroi, in fondo, non sono persone straordinarie: sono uomini e donne comuni che, in un momento decisivo, mettono ciò che è giusto davanti a sé… pic.twitter.com/eUoBGE40MG
— Giorgia Meloni (@GiorgiaMeloni) May 17, 2026
The previous day, she had stated on the platform that she trusted “the perpetrator will be held fully accountable for his actions.”
Four bystanders stopped El Koudri from fleeing the scene. ANSA reported that two of them were Egyptian nationals. Mayor Massimo Mezzetti praised them as “the symbol of a community that knows, even in such a dramatic moment, how to react, unite and intervene.”
