A false bomb scare at the Ministry of Culture, on Via del Collegio Romano. Carabinieri, bomb squads, and canine units conducted inspections after an anonymous call reported a device, but the searches were negative and the alarm was therefore called off. The department, during the bomb squad operations, had been evacuated as a precaution.
What happened
This afternoon there was a phone call reporting a device, immediately after which an evacuation took place. An abandoned backpack was supposedly found.
At the Ministry of Culture entered Saetta, the first robot dog of the Carabinieri. The device, assigned to the Rome bomb squads, is used to assist in the identification and defusing of potential devices. The purchase was made to increase security measures in anticipation of the Jubilee of 2025.
Bomb Scare at the Ministry of Culture
The work, in the absence of Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano, who was engaged elsewhere, was carried forward by Undersecretary Gianmarco Mazzi, who was also coordinating "Towards the first code of entertainment". "We are expecting at any moment stars of dance like Roberto Bolle, Eleonora Abbagnato, and many others. We hope to be able to resume work as soon as possible," Mazzi explained to ANSA.
Sangiuliano: "In recent months, Arabic writings on the wall"
"I was at Luiss. I was notified by a phone call from the head of secretariat and chief of staff and I told them to immediately contact the police authorities." This was said by the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano, arriving at the Ministry of Culture where a bomb scare is underway. "I cannot say what they are doing - there are protocols. But our law enforcement are the best in the world. In recent months, there have been Arabic writings on the walls near the ministry, I still keep the photos. And I personally have received threats in Arabic on my Facebook profile on which I have made a regular complaint. However, this does not mean that there is any connection."
The call
The call announcing the presence of a bomb at the Ministry of Culture, where the clearances were carried out, according to the doormen who received it, was supposedly made by an adult Italian man, without foreign inflections and without recognizable dialect accents.
All the staff was promptly evacuated and carabinieri, bomb squads, and the canine group with the robot dog Saetta arrived. "We are waiting for the decision of the provincial committee for order and security on the pedestrianization of Via Ferdinando Specchi, which is a very narrow street that was crowded this morning by employees of the Ministry of Culture who were made to exit. Doing slalom between cars and motorcycles in these situations can become dangerous. We are in contact with colleagues from the Municipality of Rome and we are confident that they will provide as soon as possible," said the Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Culture, Francesco Gilioli, speaking with journalists on Via del Collegio Romano.
This article is automatically translated