Five people were injured when two ambulances crashed into each other in Naples Oct. 22 during a drill designed to test emergency services' response to a terrorist attack. Special anti-terrorism police, helicopters, fire engines, sniffer dogs and Red Cross volunteers took part in the exercise, which had recruited over 100 actors to play dead and injured. Two ambulances rushing to help the "injured" slammed into each other, resulting in five real injured, and two hospitalizations. Another casualty was a woman civil defence volunteer who had to be treated for a panic attack. The "Autumn Emergency 2005" drill followed similar exercises in Rome and Milan organized in the wake of the July 7 London bombings. (Reuters, Oct. 22)

See our last post on terrorist paranoia in Italy, and the related phenomenon of Italy's neo-fascist resurgence.