An African migrant was apprehended by Italian police after being caught on camera raping a Ukrainian woman in the middle of the street in broad daylight.
The incident occurred on Sunday morning around 6:30 a.m. in the centre of Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna, when the migrant, originally from Guinea, allegedly raped his 55-year-old Ukrainian victim on the Via Scalabrini.
According to the newspaper Il Giornale, local residents alerted police after witnessing the attack, and others captured the shocking attack on film.
“It is a very serious episode that offends not only the victim but a city that has proven hospitable to those who – evidently – did not deserve it,” national-conservative Brothers of Italy member Tommaso Foti said, adding that he did not want to politicise the attack for political reasons but that it could not be ignored.
Populist League leader Matteo Salvini commented on the attack, saying, “Asylum seeker and rapist. That’s enough! Defending the borders and the Italians will be a duty for me, not a right.”
According to the Italian statistics agency ISTAT, foreigners commit 42% of violent sex crimes against women in the country, with non-European Union migrants accounting for a sizable proportion of sex attackers.