2026 Modena car-ramming attack

On May 16, 2026, a driver deliberately rammed pedestrians in Modena, Italy, injuring seven people and then attacking and wounding a pedestrian with a knife during his escape.^[1][2][3][4]

At approximately 16:30, a person in a grey Citroën C3 drove at a high speed (roughly 100km/h), hitting a person on a bicycle on the road before driving onto the sidewalk, colliding with a group of pedestrians. The impact was so violent that people were thrown into the air. Then the car left the sidewalk and partially hit a pedestrian crossing the road, before it continued straight and curving towards the sidewalk on the opposite side, accelerating to try to hit other pedestrians, who avoided the car. In the end, the car turns and crashes into a shop window, crushing a woman against it. She lost both of her legs in the impact.^[1][5]

After the impact, a person opened the car door. At that point, the driver got out of the car and pushed him, then ran away down Corso Adriano street. From there he was chased by pedestrians, where the perpetrator tried to hide and was grabbed by a pedestrian, Luca Signorelli. The perpetrator threw him to the ground, pulled out a knife and tried to kill him, by stabbing his head and heart. The wounds were not lethal. In the ensuing scuffle, he was blocked by other pedestrians, identified as citizens of Egypt and Bangladesh.^[6][7] The perpetrator was then arrested by the police.^[8][9][10]

The testimonies of the citizens who witnessed the incident stated that they found themselves in a scene like in 2016 Nice truck attack.^[11] The accident sparked panic and shock among witnesses.^[8]

A RAI troupe was assaulted by relatives of two of the wounded outside the hospital in Bologna in which they were recovered, while reporting from the scene.^[12]

Eight people were injured, four critically. They were identified as five women and three men.^[2][1] Victims were taken to hospitals in Modena and Bologna, with those critically injured being evacuated by helicopter.^[2]

One victim had both of her legs severed by the collision,^[1] while another had to have her legs amputated.^[13] Those two victims were identified as female tourists from Poland and Germany, aged 69 and 53.^[14][15]

The driver was a 31-year-old Italian citizen of Moroccan origin, Salim El Koudri, who was born in Bergamo and was raised in Ravarino.^[1][2] He was an economics graduate with no previous criminal record. El Koudri was unemployed and had been suffering from schizoid mental disorders since 2022.^[16]

The perpetrator was subdued by pedestrians for eleven seconds after he stabbed a man. He was then arrested.^{[17][18][19][20][21]}

A day after the attack, it was ruled out that the perpetrator had a political or religious motive. It is suspected that he acted during a mental health crisis.^[14] According to several media outlets, social media profiles believed to belong to the suspect were taken offline or made inaccessible shortly after the attack. Investigators had not publicly stated whether the accounts were removed by the platforms, by relatives, or by the suspect himself.^{[22][23][24][25]}

Police detained the perpetrator after the attack. Authorities were investigating whether the driver had been under the influence of drugs, and whether the act was deliberate.^[2] During the evening, at a press conference, the Prefect of Modena Fabrizia Triolo denied that the perpetrator was under the influence of psychotropic substances and that he had committed a deliberate act, adding that in 2022 the perpetrator had shown signs of serious schizoid mental disorders.^[18][26]

Prosecutor of Republic Luca Masini^[27] declared that "there is a clear and evident intent to endanger public safety, not just the lives of the individual victims, in a central city street and in a seamless space and time".^[28] A day after the attack, Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi said that terrorism was ruled out and that the attack happened due to the perpetrator's psychiatric disorders.^[29]

Police also conducted a house search at El Koudri's home in Ravarino, in the province of Modena.^[30]

President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella expressed his concern to the mayor of Modena over the accident and the serious injuries, and asked him to thank those who "courageously stopped the perpetrator" of the serious incident. Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni, who was attending the Europe Gulf Forum in Navarino, Greece,^[31] expressed deep concern about the incident while in contact with Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi and expressed her closeness to the mayor of Modena, who also condemned the perpetrator.^[32] Italy's far-right Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the anti-immigrant League party, named the preparator on X and described him as, "second-generation criminal".^[33][34][35]

On 17 May President Mattarella and Prime Minister Meloni went to Baggiovara Hospital in Modena and Maggiore Hospital in Bologna to visit the injured.^[36]

• 2016 Nice truck attack
• List of vehicle-ramming attacks