ROME, Aug 21 (AFP) - Italian police foiled an attempt to sabotage a high-speed train linking the northern cities of Bologna and Florence on August 15, one of the busiest days of the year, Italian media reported Saturday.
Anarchist tracts claiming credit for the attack were found nearby, although no one has been arrested or identified as a possible suspect, the reports said. The media were not informed sooner to avoid compromising the investigation.
The saboteurs suspended large fishing hooks attached to two steel cables at the entrance of a tunnel in such a way that an approaching engine would rip away the lines providing electrical power to the train.
The attempt was foiled before any damage was done.
The prosecuting magistrate in Bologna handling the case, Luigi Persico, confirmed that "fortunately, the incident did not have painful consequences due to the watchful diligence of rail personnel," the daily La Repubblica reported.
A conductor of a Milan-Rome train travelling on a parallel track noticed and reported the suspect cables, averting a possible catastrophe, according to the paper, which published a photo of the hooks, typically used to hunt octopus.
The saboteurs were clearly attempting to create a high-profile disturbance by halting rail traffic along one of the busiest corridors in Italy on a day when most of the country was on vacation.
This particular sabotage technique is described in an anarchist manual entitled "To each his own: 1,000 ways to sabotage the world," several Italian papers reported.
There are less than 300 revolutionary anarchists dispersed throughout Italy with a tiny hard core in the university town of Bologna, the same sources said.