Attack on the Higher Institute of Health in Rome: the door set on fire

Rome. The entrance door of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome was set on fire.

Individuals doused the entrance to the Viale Regina Elena facility with flammable liquid and fled. Carabinieri officers are on scene investigating the incident. The front door was damaged by the flames, and smoke filled the facility's lobby. Caretakers intervened and raised the alarm. Some employees working on the COVID emergency had recently left the facility.

The Carabinieri are examining the images from the street cameras around the Istituto Superiore di Sanità that may have filmed whoever set fire to the entrance door. At the moment the investigators are not ruling out any possibility, from the gesture of a madman to a demonstrative act. A Carabinieri patrol put out the flames with a fire extinguisher in the service car. The Investigative Unit is still carrying out its surveys and will report to the Prosecutor's Office. The damage is not thought to be significant.

“Acts of intimidation against theIstituto Superiore di Sanita. My full support and gratitude goes to Silvio Brusaferro and all the women and men of the ISS for the extraordinary work done every day in the service of the country. The enemy is the virus. Not those who are committed to fighting it”. This is what the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza wrote in a post on Fb.

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“Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Institute has been working tirelessly to provide maximum scientific support to the management of the emergency in the sole interest of protecting the health of all citizens and our communities. We will therefore continue to serve our country to overcome this pandemic together”. This is what the President of the Institute Silvio Brusaferro and the General Director Andrea Piccioli declared regarding what the minister called “an intimidating attack” carried out this evening against the headquarters of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità. Brusaferro recommended everyone to raise the level of attention.