Fire bomb explodes near Italian tax collection agency

PanARMENIAN.Net - A fire bomb exploded outside the offices of Italian tax collection agency Equitalia in the northern city of Verona on Friday, Oct 5, police said.

Another device planted in the entrance failed to explode, and was made safe by firemen after the first blast smashed glass doors at the tax office in the early hours of Friday morning, a police spokesman said. Nobody was hurt, Reuters reported.

Equitalia offices have been the target of a series of threats and attacks this year.

The agency is widely associated with tax hikes imposed by the technocrat government of Mario Monti, who has cut spending and led a crackdown on fiscal evasion in a bid to cut public debt that has made Italy a focus of the euro zone crisis.