A Tunisian man in the Italian city of Milan was stabbed over the weekend after being attacked by three other North Africans who noticed he was drinking a beer during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The Tunisian, who was drinking with another Tunisian man, was attacked near Milan’s central railway station on Sunday as he and his friend were drinking beers.
The two men, aged 47 and 39, were set upon by three other North African men, said to be practising Muslims, who became enraged the Tunisian nationals were violating the Ramadan dawn until dusk fast, along with drinking alcohol, which is prohibited in Islam, Il Giornale reports.
During the violence, one of the Tunisians was stabbed in the side with a knife and was later taken to a local hospital in Milan where he was described as being in stable condition.
The two victims described the three attackers to local Carabinieri but the three North Africans fled the scene before the officers arrived and had not yet been arrested. Carabinieri says they are examining CCTV footage of the area in an effort to identify the attackers.
The incident comes just weeks after six people in the same area were stabbed by a North African migrant from Morocco, who went on a robbery and stabbing rampage while armed with a box cutter.
Alessandro Cattaneo, a member of the Italian parliament for the centre-right Forza Italia led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, stated that the area around the main train station was out of control, blaming mass migration for the increase in crime.
“I don’t know today anyone imagines being able to return to the model made from 2012 onwards, when almost 200,000 migrants were disembarked every year and then abandoned to themselves, in the streets of our cities, leaving them to fall victim to criminal organizations,” he said.