ESCAPE FOR DUCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 42, 20 February 1939, Page 7

ESCAPE FOR DUCE

A GUARD WOUNDED INCIDENT OUTSIDE VILLA SHOT FIRED BY LOITERER [By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, Feb. 17. The Rome correspondent of the British United Press states that the Prime Minister, Signor Mussolini, escaped assassination on February 15 when an attacker shot a member of his bodyguard in front of the Duce’s residence, the Villa Torloma, as Signor Mussolini was departing for the Palazzo Venezia. It is reported that the guard challenged a loiterer at the main gateway, whereupon the stranger fired a revolver through his coat, wounding the guard in the stomach. Signor Mussolini rushed up as detectives and members of the household staff were arrestii* the assailant. Police are reported to have ascertained that the man who fired the snot was released from an asylum last week and was still carrying the certifying papers.

OFFICIAL REPORT

NO ATTEMPT ON DUCE’S LIFE ROME, Feb. 17. .‘.n official communique says: “The report that an attempt was recently made on the life of the head of the Government is false. The rumour arose from an incident caused by a madman firing shots in the Via Nomentana.” The Via Nomentana is close to Signor Mussolini’s residence. A further communique says that at 2 p.m. on February 15, in the Via Nomentana, a militiaman in plain clothes noticed an individual who was evidently mentally unbalanced, and approached him with the intention of calming him. The individual fired, wounding the militiaman in the abdomen. The man was arrested and identified as a mechanic named Bruno Simone, aged 38. He had twice been detained in a lunatic asylum, from which he was released last year.