An exciting afternoon in Piazza dei Cinquecento, the large square in front of Rome’s Termini train station, where a man armed with a large knife caused panic. Video footage from Saturday December 4 shows the most turbulent moments as police officers intervened to calm the man, a 36-year-old Nigerian, who was shouting incoherent phrases and threatening officers with a knife.
The police officers tried to surround the man and prevent him from approaching passers-by, while a woman, also African, intervened, shouting at the officers and making the situation even more dicey. In a dramatic climax, the man then came dangerously close to one of the officers – armed with a baton, no one pulled a firearm – and the others quickly managed to restrain him. The 36-year-old man had begun to show signs of agitation shortly before at the stop of tram line 5 in Via Giolitti. Caught up by the police, he then fled in the direction of Piazza dei Cinquecento, where he was disarmed and arrested for grave assault and illegal possession of a weapon.