“Two explosive devices destroyed a car parked in front of a house in Campo Ascolano on the outskirts of Rome,” Ranucci, host of the investigative TV show Report, said on Instagram, adding: “The explosion was so powerful that it shook the whole neighborhood.”
One of the cars belonged to his daughter, who left the area just 20 minutes before the explosion.
According to a report from Italian news agency ANSA, police, DIGOS personnel and firefighters were dispatched to the scene, while Rome’s anti-Mafia prosecutor’s office began investigating the incident, treating it as a crime aggravated by Mafia tactics.
“This was a rudimentary device, but we now have to determine the type of explosive,” Ranucci said, adding that he and his family had faced “many threats” over the years.
The journalist has been living under police protection since 2014 after receiving death threats related to an organized crime investigation.
Defense Minister Guido Crosset condemned the attack as a “very serious, despicable and unacceptable act” and said it was “an attack on freedom of information itself.”
MNA/