ITALIAN OFFICIALS say that no one has claimed responsibility for yesterday’s bombing which killed a 16-year-old girl, but add that they believe it was carried out by one person.

The device, made up of gas canisters, exploded around 8am yesterday outside a school in Brindisi as students gathered for their Saturday classes.

One student, 16-year-old Melissa Bassi, was killed and several other students were injured, one seriously.

There has been some speculation that the explosion was in some way connected with the mafia, given that the school involved in the incident was named after a judge and her husband, an anti-Mafia prosecutor. The couple were killed 20 years ago in Palermo, Sicily.

However, Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri said yesterday that there was no clear indication of a mafia link to the explosion.

Today, chief prosecutor Marco Dinapoli said there is “significant” video evidence suggesting a man laid the device and said that the attack was most likely carried out by a single person in an “isolated act”.

The explosion follows a spate of attacks against Italian officials and public buildings by a group of anarchists. The anti-nuclear group had previously shot a nuclear engineer outside his home in Genoa.

- Additional reporting by the AP

Student killed in bomb attack outside Italian school >