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MILAN

Spooked horse injures four at Palio near Milan

Four people were injured, one of them seriously, on Sunday afternoon at the Palio di Rho, a town near Milan, after a horse bolted and started to run through the crowd.

Spooked horse injures four at Palio near Milan
Some 48 horses have died at the Palio di Siena (pictured) between 1970 and 2007. Photo: Fabio Muzzi/AFP

The horse started galloping along Via Madonna, crushing several people and seriously injuring an 85-year- old man, Today.it reported.

He was struck by the horse’s hooves in various parts of his body, and hit his head as he fell. 

The horse rider was also among the four injured.

It is believed that the noise of the drums and the music caused the horse to bolt. After the incident the parade was immediately suspended and the horse sedated.

The news comes after a year in which horseracing has come under increased scrutiny in Italy.

In June, a horse died during the trials for the Palio di Siena, causing animal rights activists to call for the famous horse race to be banned.

Read more: Animal activists call for Palio ban after horse dies

Some 48 horses have died at the Palio di Siena between 1970 and 2007. The race takes place twice a year, and has fierce traditional roots in the city. But in recent years both the safety of the horses and the riders have been called into question.

By Ellie Bennett

 

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MILAN

Romanian billionaire and seven others die in Milan plane crash

A light aircraft piloted by Romanian billionaire Dan Petrescu crashed into an empty office building near Milan on Sunday, killing him, his wife and son, and all five others aboard.

Police and rescue teams outside the office building where a small plane crashed in the Milan suburb of San Donato.
Police and rescue teams outside the office building where a small plane crashed in the Milan suburb of San Donato on October 3rd. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP

The single-engine Pilatus PC-12 had taken off from Milan’s Linate airport shortly after 1pm headed for Olbia in the north of the Italian island of Sardinia.

It crashed just a few minutes later into a building in San Donato Milanese, a town southeast of Milan, according to aviation agency ANSV, which has opened an investigation.

Witnesses said the plane was already in flames before it crashed into an office building undergoing renovations.

Petrescu’s 65-year-old wife, who also had French nationality, and their son Dan Stefano, 30, were killed.

Italian media identified the other passengers as entrepreneur Filippo Nascimbene, a 33-year-old from Lombardy, with his wife, young son and mother-in-law, who have French nationality.

Petrescu, 68, was one of Romania’s richest men. He headed a major construction firm and owned a string of hypermarkets and malls. He also held Germany nationality, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.

Flames engulfed the two-storey building, next to the yellow line subway terminus.

“The impact was devastating,” Carlo Cardinali, of the Milan fire brigade, told news agency Ansa.

Deputy prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano was quoted by Corriere as saying that the plane’s black box had been recovered.

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